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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Cliap. r _ CopyriiTht No 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



V 




Books by William Root Bliss 




Colonial Times on Buzzard's Bay 

With Map and Facsimiles. New Edition. 
Crown 8vo, gilt top, ^1.50. 

Quaint Nantucket 

Crown 8vo, gilt top, ^1.50. 

The Old Colony Town, and Other 

Sketches 
Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.25. 

Side Glimpses from the Colonial Meet- 
ing-House 

Crown 8vo, gilt top, ^1.50. 



Published by 
Messrs. Houghton^ Mifflin b' Company 

Sc Sold by all the Booksellers 





Colonial Times on 
Buzzard's Bay 

by 
William Root Bliss 

ilifio CDition 




Boston and New York 

Houghton, Mififlin and Company 

^\)z RiUcraibe ^pxzH^ Cambribfle 

1 900 



2(>0r>G 






Library of Congresfe 

^\l^•J Copies Received 
JUL 28 1900 

Copyright entry 



SECOND COPY. 

Oeilvered te 

OR[)ER DIVISION, 

AUG 7 1900 



Copyright, i888, igoo 
By WILLIAM ROOT BLISS 

^// rt^Ais reserved 

67152 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company 



31 ©cbicate tW '2Booft 

TO MY WIFE, 

ELIZABETH FEARING, 

ONE OF THE GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTERS OF 

ISRAEL FEARING, Esquire, 

OF THE AGAWAME PLANTATION, WHO WAS A GRANDSON OF 

JOHN FEARING, 

OF NORFOLK COUNTY IN OLD ENGLAND, 

WHO LANDED AT HINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, 

IN THE YEAR 1 635. 



In preparing this book I have used the fol- 
lowing original manuscripts ; namely — the 
Records of the Rochester Propriety^ begin- 
ning in the year lOjg ; the Records of the 
Agawame Plantation, beginning in the year 
l68^ ; the Records of Rochestertoivn, be- 
ginning in the year l6g/f ; the Records of 
IVareham, town and chnrch, beginning in 
the year IJJQ, the diary and account book 
of Israel Fearijig, farmer and justice of the 
peace from I 'J 20 to 1 7541 ^^^^ similar zvrit- 
ings by his son John and his grandson John, 
farmers and justices of the peace Jinder the 
royal government and binder the independent 
commonwealth ; also various old manuscripts 
belonging to Mr. Gerard C. Tobey of Wareham. 
Studying these writings, I have tried to illu- 
mine their skeleton sketches of men a7id events 
with the color a?td spirit of their times. 

Greystones, Short Hills, 

Essex County, New Jersey. 



CONTENTS. 



A Prelude 

The Lands of Sippican 
The Agawame Plantation 
Colonial Farmers . 

The Squire 

The Birth of a Town . 
The Town's Mind 
Impressments for the King 
The Town's Meeting-House 
A Sunday Morning in 1771 . 
The Town's Minister 
The Town's Schoolmaster . 
Town Life in the Revolution 
Town Life after the War . 
The British Raid 
The Town's Bass-Viol . 
Final Transformations 

Appendix 

Indexes 



PAGE 
II 

19 

44 
55 
71 

n 
84 
104 
III 
127 
136 
161 
169 
192 
210 
218 
223 
239 
24s 




The Upper Shore of Buzzards Bay. 



A PRELUDE 




HE story told in this book begins in 
the year 1680, when a few English- 
men of the Plymouth colony made a 
plantation near Sippican harbor on the upper 
shore of Buzzard's Bay ; and it ends in the 
year when a railroad, creeping down from 
Boston, entered the same region and changed 
the morals, manners, and occupations of its 
inhabitants. 

These planters belonged to the class which 
Governor Bradford described as " used to a 
plaine countrie life and ye innocente trade 
of husbandrie ; " in pursuit of this trade they 
came to seek richer pastures than were to 
be found on the Plymouth shore. When they 
laid out their new homesteads, allotting to 
each associate sections of woodland, salt 
meadow, cedar swamp, and sea beach, they 
provided for certain future necessities by 
reserving lands "for the yuse of the minis- 
trie," for a grist-mill, a saw-mill, a fishing 



12 A PRELUDE. 

Station, and one lonesome acre for a burying 
place. 

" The dreariest spot in all the land 
To death they set apart, 
With scanty grace from nature's hand 
And none from that of art." 

The solitude of the situation and its re- 
moteness from English settlements forced 
them to rely upon their own resources. 
They wove flax and sheep's wool into mate- 
rials for clothing ; they made and shared in 
use the plows and tools needed in their 
methods of agriculture ; they cut firewood 
in a common forest and grazed cattle in 
common pastures; they built sloops for 
freighting and fishing, and traded with each 
other by " truck and dicker." Their re- 
cords show that they had no religious big- 
otry, no enmity to Quakers, no belief in 
witchcraft, no enthusiasm for public schools, 
no disloyalty to the king. 

In the course of time, families expanded 
around the homesteads and formed small iso- 
lated villages. Before them was the open 
bay ; behind them was a primeval forest 
stretching away for miles and miles, offering 
no lines of travel except the meandering 



A PRELUDE. 13 

paths trodden out by Indians on their jour- 
neys to the shore for shell-fish, or by herds 
of deer going to and from the watering 
places. At the outset this forest was es- 
teemed as a valuable inheritance. From its 
pine knots tar was made in restricted quan- 
tities and sent to the West Indies, to be 
bartered for such tropical products as were 
needed at home ; and lest a time might 
come when the inheritance would be in 
ruins because of a wasteful felling of its 
pine, oak, and spruce trees, it was decreed 
that no timber of any sort shall be carried 
away ; that no man shall cut posts, rails, or 
house-frames except for his own use ; and 
every boat's load of white cedar brought to 
the landing for shipment abroad shall pay 
an export tax in money. Their principle of 
political economy was the " protection " of 
future values. To this action the upper 
shore of Buzzard's Bay owes its picturesque 
woodlands ; while the highlands of Cape 
Cod, not far away, are barren of trees, al- 
though they were once covered by a dense 
forest. 

Circumstances disciplined these people to 
habits of severe frugality. It was their 



14 A PRELUDE. 

custom to record all barters with each other 
and all bargains for labor, and to make the 
final reckoning in presence of debtor and 
creditor, each of whom searched the record 
for errors. If one was found, as " a mistake 
of two quarts of molasses," it was noted and 
a settlement of the account was recorded as 
"from the beginning of the world to the 
date hereof." A laborer who hired himself 
out for a year was sure to find his account 
charged with time lost in sickness, as " Dr 
to the fever and ague — 4 fits one week and 
2 fits the next." To the readers of this 
book such petty economies and small ways 
of trade will appear mean and ridiculous if 
contrasted with the generous methods of 
modern times. But let us remember that 
these men and women were poor at the be- 
ginning, that they had known things only 
in the small, that their daily life was labor 
from sunrise to sunset, that there was little 
or no money to be had, that those who got 
any earned it farthing by farthing, and its 
great cost made them loath to part with it. 
" It is good," said James Russell Lowell,^ 
" to commemorate this homespun past of 

1 Address at the 250111 anniversary of Harvard College. 



A FH ELUDE. 1$ 

ours ; good in these days of a reckless and 
swaggering prosperity to remind ourselves 
how poor our fathers were." 

The four towns which have grown up 
from the little villages that were formed by 
the settlers on the upper shore of Buzzard's 
Bay, have from early times been the homes 
of explorers, sea-captains, and shipbuilders. 
Of these towns, Rochester, once the most 
important of all, whose territory included 
the western shore of the bay as far down as 
Dartmouth, has given all its salt-water front 
to its offsprings, Wareham, Marion, and 
Mattapoiset. It is now an inland farm, 
"half drowned in sleepy peace." 

Old, seagoing, whale-catching Mattapoiset, 
once busy with ships and shipbuilding, is 
now looking off upon the sparkling bay from 
grass-covered wharves. To its summer in- 
habitants, returning every year from distant 
cities, it appears to be the " enchantress of 
repose," while from their lawns and beaches 
they watch the tides 

" O'er-creep the ridgy sand, 
Or tap the tarry boat with gentle blow, 
And back return in silence, smooth and slow." 



1 6 A PRELUDE. 

Marion, stretched along the southern edge 
of an almost land-locked harbor, has lost its 
colonial name of Sippican (the oldest name 
on the bay), under which it long retained 
the simple characteristics of a self-support- 
ing village. Its men who chanced to go to 
sea returned after a while to live in their 
small, square houses, decorating them with 
tropical shells, bunches of coral, and other 
tokens of long voyages. Now the old houses 
are summer homes of persons at leisure, 
brand new cottages overlook the bay, and 
the modernized town is annually thriving on 
the business of a summer season, 

Wareham, the most active town on the 
bay, stretching its domain from the western 
around to the eastern shore, is the very land 
of trout brooks and cranberry harvests. 
The abundance of fish both in its rivers 
and streams, and also in the bay, — in fresh 
water and in salt water alike, — was charac- 
teristic of Wareham in colonial times, and 
it still continues to be the chief attraction 
to the many sportsmen with rod and hand- 
line who annually seek its woods and shores. 
The town also attracts a numerous summer 
population which sometimes lingers into the 



A PRELUDE. 17 

autumn, when large patches of blue fringed 
gentians are to be seen blossoming by the 
roadsides. Its belts of oaks, in which chil- 
dren search for mayflowers when south winds 
have melted the snow ; its pine woodlands, 
"with soft-brown silence carpeted;" its 
three rivers, its ponds and far outlooks over 
the bay, are allurements to those who have 
come from a distance and built cottages on 
Onset bluffs, or costly dwelling-houses on the 
necks and headlands of Agawame. 

In none of these towns does there remain 
anything that belonged to the life of colonial 
times except a few volumes of old records, 
which have an agreeable savor of quaintness 
and were written with laborious care, as if 
the unskilled writers were conscious of an 
obligation resting upon them to preserve — 
what has been said to be one of the most 
interesting forms of human knowledge — a 
knowledge of the details of the Past. 




COLONIAL TIMES 
ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 




THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 

EAVING the cars of the Cape Cod 
railroad at a junction where iron- 
works have gathered around them a 
dun-colored village, you enter a wagon and 
drive away over a sandy road which passes 
through oak and pine woods, crosses other 
sandy roads, and after many windings brings 
you to Fearing Hill. Here you turn into a 
yard shaded by elm-trees, and alight at a 
dwelling-house built in the low, square style 
of the early part of the last century, where, 
in colonial times, lived " Our trusty and well- 
beloved John Fearing Esquire ; " as he was 
called in the Commission which he held as a 
Justice of King George the Second. 

In front of the house passes an old high- 



20 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

way called the country road, coming from the 
east, and going down the western shore of 
the bay. It was an ancient path when the 
English settled in this region, and in the ear- 
liest lay-out of lands it was mentioned as then 
existing. Against the rude stone walls mark- 
ing its boundaries purple wood-asters and 
blackberry vines are clustered, in the adja- 
cent fields yellow primroses and meadow 
pinks are blooming, and the soft September 
air is laden with the perfume of Indian posies. 
Looking around, you are impressed by the 
picturesque scenery and the quiet of the neigh- 
borhood. On the northern horizon stretches 
an edge of Plymouth Woods, whose tree-tops 
catch the mists blown over from the ocean 
when the wind is northeast. Half a mile 
eastward stands a ridge of low hills covered 
with pine-trees, and through the valley at 
their feet runs the Weweantet River south- 
ward to the bay. The highway crosses the 
river by a narrow bridge, the approach to 
which is hedged by tall bushes of syringas, 
buttonwoods, and alders. Below the bridge 
the stream is checked by a dam which ex- 
pands it to a broad pond, creeping over mead- 
ows on this side and into wooded coves on the 



THE LANDS OF SIP PIC AN. 21 

Other, When the water is low a few tree- 
stumps dotting its surface appear in the 
shadowy distance like little boats at anchor. 

You hear the hum of a nail factory, out of 
sight, and you see its steam-jets floating away 
behind the hills. You hear the whish of a 
scythe ; a man is mowing the aftermath in an 
old orchard. Yonder you see the dust raised 
by an ox-team coming up from the salt mead- 
ows with a load of hay. A traveler rarely 
passes along the highway, save the baker from 
Sippican village, an oysterman, or a butcher 
driving a tidy white-covered wagon from Ware- 
ham Narrows, or itinerant merchants in lad- 
ders, fruit-trees, and tin wares, from the inte- 
rior of the State, Occasionally a sunburnt 
doctor flits 'by in a one-horse shay, carrying 
an apothecary's shop in a little box at his 
feet. But none of these disturb the universal 
repose. 

All around are pine and oak woods. In 
many places and at diverse times the woods 
have been cut down and have again grown 
up, occupying fields where stone walls now 
testify that within their leafy enclosures corn 
and grass formerly grew, and where a few 
scraggy apple-trees and the weedy ruins of a 



22 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

cellar-wall show that an old home has disap- 
peared. The present occupants of the farms 
yet unreclaimed by the forest are making a 
hard struggle to draw their living out of the 
exhausted land, which they till as it was tilled 
in colonial times, when the soil was more fer- 
tile and the seasons more propitious than now. 

The earliest authentic memorial of this re- 
gion is to be found in the Plymouth Colony 
Records of the year 1639; when a "graunt 
of a plantacion called Seppekann " was made 
to John Lothrop, a non-conformist minister, 
who, to escape persecution by Archbishop 
Laud, had fled from London to New England 
with a part of his congregation. The grant 
was not accepted ; the minister and his con- 
gregation having been induced to settle near 
the great marshes of Barnstable ; where, like 
true Presbyterians, they observed days of 
thanksgiving "for the Lord's admirable pow- 
erfuU working for Old England " by Oliver 
Cromwell. 

After the desolating war with King Philip 
was ended, all the lands on the western shore 
of the bay were purchased by a company 
which comprised many of the principal men 
in Plymouth Colony. As some of these were 



THE LANDS OF SJPFICAN. 2$ 

of Kentish descent, the purchased territory 
became known as the Rochester Propriety. 
It was esteemed valuable for its fisheries, its 
pine woodlands, its cedar and spruce swamps, 
and especially for its great necks extending 
into the bay, containing rich meadows which 
had been used by the English "to winter 
cattle upon," when the limited pasturage on 
the Plymouth shore became insufficient for 
the increase of their herds and flocks. North 
of it was a wilderness encompassing the thinly 
settled township of Middleborough, known by 
the Indian name Nemassaket ; west of it was 
a forest covering the Quaker township of 
Dartmouth, through which went the path to 
Rhode Island ; south of it was the sea, and 
eastward was the Agawame Plantation. 

The purchasers went to work to turn their 
property to a good account. On March lo, 
1679, they met " at Joseph Burgs his house 
at Sandwitch," and " Ordred that mr Thomas 
Hinctly mr william Pay body Joseph warrain 
Samuel white and Joseph Lothrop shall take 
a vew of the Lands of Scippican and determin 
wher the house Lots shall be Layed out and 
if the Land will Beare it to Lay 40 ackors to 
a house Lot and to have for thair paines 2s 



24 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

6d a day a peece in mony — and' Samuel 
white to stay ther with mr Pay body to help 
Lay out the Lands and Joseph Doty to goe 
ther to help them and to have 2s p day a 
peece in mony." Then to attract emigration 
they declared that those "that first settell and 
are Livers " there shall be allowed to make on 
the commons " ten Barrells of tarr a peece 
for a yeare," for their own use ; and that 
one man's barrel should not be larger than 
another's, it was distinctly stated that the 
free tar measure is to be " such as are com- 
only called small Barrells." Lest purchasers 
who did not emigrate to the new lands should 
claim the privilege of making tar which, at 
that time and until after the Revolution, was 
a valuable article of commerce, it was " furder 
ordred that ther shall be none of the said 
purchasers alowed to Burne or make any 
Tarre of the pine knots or wood that is 
within the Limmits " for five years, ** upon 
the penalty of five pound for every default." 
The value of the great forests for other prod- 
ucts was recognized by an order " that ther 
shall be no Tymber of any sort convaied or 
carry ed a way out of the Lymits of Scippican 
under the penilltie of twentie Shilings for 



THE LANDS OF SIPFICAN. 2$ 

every Tree or part of a tree so used and sent 
or carried away." 

The first necessities of the new settlers 
were a grist-mill and a minister of the Gos- 
pel ; for a law of the Colony declared " that 
noe pson be admited to goe to Inhabite upon 
any such lands that lye soe remote as the 
Inhabitants thereof can not ordinaryly fre- 
quent any place of publicke worship." There- 
fore, when, in April, 1680, the purchasers 
drew lots for homesteads and meadows, they 
appropriated " the first and second house lots 
with the twentie Ackar Lots that are enpled 
to them in the great Neke," and two lots in 
the best of the woodland, "for the minister 
and for the ministrie." Three years later 
two of the company were chosen to hunt for 
"som meet person to preach the word of 
god to them at Scippican and to procure him 
if they can ; " and also to treat with some per- 
sons to build a mill. Soon after this the rec- 
ords refer to a grist-mill about to be built " of 
such a capassitie as Shee may grind the corne 
of the Inhabitants for the space of twentie 
years;" and also to "the house or frame 
that is got up " for Mr. Samuel Shiverick, 
whom the proprietors agreed to pay at the 



26 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

rate of five shillings a share "for his paines 
in preaching." The next year they ordered 
"those that are setled Inhabitance" to pay 
him yearly ten shillings ^* in mony a peece 
during the time he shall preach the word of 
god." 

Tradition points to Minister Rock, a huge 
boulder near the head of Sippican harbor, as 
the* place where the pioneers first met for 
public worship : — 

" On Minister Rock they stood, and as they gazed 

Upon the white-caps sailing out to sea, 
Their prayerful souls to heaven devoutly raised, 

They praised the Lord for christian liberty. 
And as they sang ' The hill of Zion yields ' 

To contrite souls ' A thousand sacred sweets ; ' 
The fragrant marshes seemed like ' heavenly fields,' 

The yellow sedges glowed like ' golden streets.' 

" The wandering wind had healing in its breath, 

Distilled from cedar, pine, and spicy birch ; 
The sea had saving salt ; nor second death 

Itself could fright a member of the church. 
In ages past the servants of the Lord 

Were glad to seek the shadow of a rock ; 
Here was the ponderous substance, to reward 

These scions of a puritanic stock." 

Not long afterwards a few of these thrifty 
Englishmen, attracted by the streams, fish- 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 2/ 

eries, and meadows of the easterly part of 
the territory, planted their homesteads nearer 
to Fearing Hill and the picturesque banks of 
the Weweantet. 

Meanwhile the title to the lands, which the 
company held " acording to the deed granted 
by the Court," was disputed by some of the 
Indian sachems. These were Charles, who 
claimed a neck of land which still bears his 
name, Manomet Peter, and Will Connet, as 
they were called by the English. The claims 
were bought, except that of Will Connet, who, 
claiming to be lord paramount of all the ter- 
ritory bordering on the Weweantet and Woon- 
kinco rivers to " Plymouthes westerly tree at 
Agawaame," did " disclaime and defie the 
title of every these men called the purchasers 
of Sepecan." In 1682 the purchasers prose- 
cuted a suit to dispossess him ; but they were 
glad to settle it by paying a pound sterling, a 
trucking cloth coat valued at ten shillings, 
and by making him a member of their com- 
pany. His name was then written upon the 
roll of shareholders — " Substanciall men that 
are prudent psons and of considerable es- 
tates," as the Plymouth Court had described 
them ; and when they were taxing themselves 



28 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

" ten shillings a peece in silver mony " to 
meet their contract for building the grist-mill, 
it was recorded that " Will Connet promised 
for him self and his brother John to give six 
barrells of tarr to wards sd mill." 

In 1686 the lands of Sippican were incor- 
porated, and became " Rochester Towne in 
new England ; " but the management of affairs 
remained with the proprietors, who continued 
to carry on the general government of the 
town in entire separation from the body of 
the inhabitants. 

Their supreme authority was used in vari- 
ous ways. To prevent the exportation of 
lumber they met, in 1687, "at Elder Chap- 
mans house in Sandwitch," and " Ordred 
that all Timber Bourds Bolts Shinales Cla- 
boude Cooper Stuf or shuch like that is 
brought to the water side or any Landing 
place where it may be Judged that it will 
be transported out of the Township shall be 
forfited the one half there of to the Inter- 
men and the other halfe there of to the 
Townes use." They also ordered that "no 
Person what so ever should gett timber upon 
the undivided Lands for Posts Rails or house 
frames except the timber so gotten be used 



THE LANDS OF SIPFICAN. 29 

within the township." They made laws for- 
bidding strange Indians " to hunt or catch 
deer" within the town, and forbidding the 
inhabitants "to imploy anny such indian in 
hunting." They made a decree to prohibit 
every person from cutting "cedar spruce or 
pine except he fairly demonstrate that he 
stands in need of it." They gave to their 
associates liberty "to sett up a grist mill 
upon the River called mattapoicitt," and 
"to sett up a mil for Iron works whear it 
may be secur from hurting people by cuting 
choyce timber or fire wood." In 1698 they 
fixed a boundary line with Plymouth ; in 
1701 they ordered "Samuel Prince Lieut 
John Hammond and Aron Barlow to setle 
bounds an run the Line " with Dartmouth ; 
in 1702 they had a controversy with "the 
Lathrops of barnstable and the tomsons of 
midleberry whear the bounds shall stand be- 
tween them and the Proprietors of roches- 
ter." In 1706 they fixed a tax upon "what 
tar hath bin gotten or shall hear after be 
gotten by the inhabitance of rochester" 
from their lands, " those yt git it shall pay 
eight pence for every full gaged barell they 
git into the dark of the propriety." In 1708 



30 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

they ordered a fine of five pounds to be paid 
by every " English or Indian or others who 
shall set on fire the woods in anny part of 
the Township and neglect to put it out be- 
fore they depart the Spott whear the sd fire 
was made." They ordered that undivided 
lands in "all the four necks shall remaine 
after the manner of a common field;" they 
appropriated lands for highways, and "to 
make a training field and for a burling place 
and to sett a meeting hous upon for the 
benifit of the Town in Genarall." 

Other matters fell to the town meeting, 
where orders were generally conditioned 
"with the consent of the proprietors," whose 
prerogative appears to have been regarded 
like that of the King. The town meeting 
dealt with wolves, wildcats, and foxes, mak- 
ing havoc of the farmers' sheep, and with 
crows, blackbirds, robins, and squirrels, de- 
vastating planted fields. Forty shillings were 
paid in 1699 "for killing of two grown 
woulves in our town ; " at the same time it 
was made obligatory upon every inhabitant 
to bring "unto Peter Blackmer the town 
dark," annually, the heads of four crows 
and the heads of twelve blackbirds killed b}' 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 3 1 

the bringer, before the last day of May. 
But it was voted " that whosoever shall kill 
either squerels, Red birds or jay birds & 
bring 12 of their heads to the town clark 
they shall be exsepted and entered in the 
Room of black birds & crows." So numer- 
ous were these farm pests that the town was 
compelled to enforce their destruction by a 
fine of two shillings levied upon " every man 
in Rochester of 21 years old and upward" 
who did not kill his yearly quota, and " cary 
the heads of the birds or squarils so killed to 
the man that is to take a Count of ye wild 
cats." There was always a bounty to be 
paid for wildcats and foxes killed in the town, 
if the head of the beast was brought to " one 
of the selectmen with both thire eares on to 
be cut off."^ 

Dogs, kept by farmers to protect their 

1 *'a Count of wild cats and foxes killed in the year 
1722 capt Holmes & family killed eleven foxes James 
Stuart fouer wild cats Timothy Stephens i cat caleb cow- 
ing I cat Anthony cumbs i cat moses Barlow i fox John 
Wing I cat John Briggs i fox Jabez Hillard 2 foxes Ben- 
jamin hammond 2 foxes i wild cat Seth hammond i wild 
cat Benj Dexter Junr & James Hammond i cat Jonathan 
Hammond Junr i fox Thomas Turner i fox Benjamin Dex- 
ter I fox David Joseph i fox." — Rochester Town Records. 



32 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

sheep from wild beasts, were also a pest, for 
they persisted in uprooting the early corn. 
With each return of spring, alewives came up 
Mattapoiset River from the sea and entered 
Sniptuit pond, where they were taken by 
Anthony Comes, who was " chosen to tend 
the Herring ware carefully and dilligently," 
and were dealt out to each inhabitant that 
came for them " for a peck of corne or 6d in 
money for each looo." When cornfields 
were planted alewives were put into the hills, 
and the hungry dogs, getting nothing to eat 
at home, pawed open the hills and ate the 
fish. This made business for the " town 
meet" of May, 1703, when, as the records 
say, " it was taken into consideration the 
great dam that this town hath in time passed 
suffered by dogs going at Liberty when ale- 
wives are planted in cornfields with Indien 
corn ; " and then it was ordered that every 
"dog Bitch or dog kind" shall be annually 
fettered on the 20th of April for forty days 
by " haveing one of theire fore feet fastened 
up to their neck so as to prevent their dig- 
ging up of fish so planted." 

But neither wolves, dogs, crows, nor ale- 
wives distracted the thoughts of the people 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 33 

from a meeting-house to be "sit on the west- 
erly Sid of the long bridg ; " and they " did 
agree to pay for the meeting-house which 
was to be builded by a free will offering " of 
fifty pounds. It was a square building of 
four gables, finished in 1699, and is described 
as having " a pulpit and flours and Seats & 
girts for 3 galerys with 3 Seats apew and 
windows as the undertakers Shall see con- 
venient." In 1 714 it was declared to be too 
small for the congregation, and it was then 
enlarged by "an addition made to ye back- 
side." Seats were built " nye the pulpit stairs 
for Antiant parsons to sett in." Rights to 
build pews in the enlarged house were sold 
"at vandue to those that would give most 
for them and buld sd pues in three month 
and pay in mony for them in Six months;" 
it being understood that " the pues be al of a 
haith and bult work men like." The allotted 
spots for pews were gradually occupied, and 
then permission was given to certain per- 
sons to build pews, "on the beams over the 
galeries," and upon other lofty perches above 
the heads of the congregation, " provided 
they do it decently," and "on their own cost." 
One of these lofty-pew builders was Timothy 



34 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

Ruggles, junior. He had just graduated at 
Harvard College and had returned to his 
native town to begin the practice of law, 
when he obtained permission to build the 
pew whose commanding -position on the 
beams of the meeting-house was typical of 
his position in subsequent years as one of 
the most prominent citizens of New Eng- 
land, in civil and military affairs. 

The natural parsimony of the people which 
led them to prefer to patch out the old meet- 
ing-house rather than spend money for a new 
one was again shown in December, 1730, 
when the shabby condition of its windows 
was making the cold house colder ; and it 
was voted " to mend the Glass that is Least 
broken and where the Glass is Quite Gone 
to nail up bords in Lue thereof for ye 
preasant." 

The first minister in this meeting-house 
was Samuel Arnold, who had begun to preach 
to the town in 1690, and to whom, in 1697, 
the proprietors of the lands gave a "whole 
shear of upland and meadow ground," upon 
condition "that he continucth in the work 
of the ministry among them till prevented 
by death." After continuing in this work 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 35 

for thirteen years he organized a church, and 
recorded the fact in these pious words : " It 
hath pleased our gracious God to shine in 
this dark corner of this wilderness and visit 
this dark spot of ground with the dayspring 
from on high, through his tender mercy to 
settle a church according to the order of the 
Gospel October 13, a, d. 1703." 

As some townsmen, who were not of the 
prevailing religious faith, protested against 
paying the ministry taxes, a town meeting of 
1709 was charitable enough "to abate the 
sum of ten pounds upon such inhabitance as 
are of contrery judgement & now professed 
Quakers." Then they raised forty pounds 
"for the incoragement & soport of a min- 
ister ; " and, mr Arnold being dead, they 
"made choice of mr Timothy Ruggles," in 
1710, to be their minister, to be by them 
"Treated with & duly incoraged in order to 
a Settlement." He was a graduate of Har- 
vard College, and a great-grandson of Thomas 
Dudley, the second governor of the Colony of 
Massachusetts Bay. He was " incoraged " 
to settle by a salary of thirty pounds, a 
gift of seventy acres of land for a farm, the 
use of the glebe, or, as it was designated in 



36 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

the records, the " uplands medovvs & ceadder 
& spruce swamps of the ministreys shear," 
by building for him a house — " the sd mr 
Ruggles finding and providing all the nails 
& glasse," and by boarding him "at Roger 
Hascols " until the house was done. He con- 
tinued to be the town-minister for fifty-eight 
years, or "till prevented by death." ^ 

1 The following letter from the Rev. Timothy Ruggles, 
addressed to the Rev. John Howland, of Plympton, is pre- 
served among the papers of the Rev. Ezra Stiles in the 
library of Yale College : " Revd. Sir, In answer to yours 
of the 30th of Aug. last I would say I am not able to say 
anything as to any uneasiness of the Neighbour ministers 
with Relation to the settlement of The Revd Mr Saml 
Arnold &c. This I find by the Church Records he left 
now in my hand that he lived Thirteen years in the work 
of the ministry before his ordination in Rochester & as I 
well Remember the only Reason of that was for want of 
members to Imbody. I find by sd Records he was or- 
dained 13th of October, 1703 : & there was seven members 
beside himself Imbodied at his ordination and he was in 
the 56 year of his age and he dyed in the year 1708. I 
remember I often heard the antientest people & brightest 
Christians say that they had one Mr Shievereck, a lay 
preacher, with them before Mr Arnold who was in their 
opinion not comparable with Mr Arnold, who after settled 
at Falmouth. Mr Arnold, by all I could learn by the 
brightest Christians here at my first coming, was an Emi- 
nent Christian who walked close with God. His Father 
was a minister & gave him a good Education, who had only 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 37 

The proprietors also left the school, the 
highways, and the poor to the care of town 
meeting, which in 1706 chose "mrs jane 
mashell for to teach childered & youth to 
Reed & to writte ; " for " her panes " she was 
" to have her dyet and to receive twelve 
pounds." She kept her school in different 
places between Mattapoiset Neck and Woon- 
kinco River. For two or three years she 
was the chosen teacher ; but doubts arose 
about the soberness of her conversation and 
it is recorded that three ungallant men, 
"Joseph Benson John dexter & ichabod burg 
requested to have theire protest entered for 
that they accounted she was not as the law 
directs." 

In 1 712, John Myers " was made choice of 
to sarve in the office of a Skoll master," and 
it was voted "to raise twelve pounds in 
money to pay him for his pains in keeping of 

a private Education himself. I have often heard from 
some of the Neighbouring Ministers who survived him 
that they esteemed him as a worthy minister & approved 
him as a good Divine but not so well skilled in Church 
Discipline as some others. Sir, with sutable compliments 
to yourself & Madam I rest yours to serve, 

" TiMO. RUGGLES. 

" Roch. 8. Sept. 1764." 



38 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

Skool to teach children & youth to Read & 
write & to have his dyet provided for him." 
His school was to be kept at five places in 
the town during the year, " first at White 
Hall then at the centre 3'y at mattapoisit 4'y 
at the fresh meadows and 5'y at Sepecan." 
The distance between the third and fourth 
places was about ten miles by the country 
road. After him there were years when no 
school was kept, for a teacher was not to be 
had ; and, in 1 720, the town having been 
presented by the grand jury of the county 
for " not being provided with a Scoolmas- 
ter," paid " Capt Winslow twenty shillings 
for Answaring the Towns presentment." 
When in 1732 Benjamin Delano undertook 
to keep the town school in five places dur- 
ing the year, his compensation was thirty 
pounds with " Dyat washing & Lodging & 
hors to Ride." As pounds were then of 
small value in silver money his principal re- 
ward was his board and washing and the use 
of the horse that carried him to his work. 

The northeasterly boundary of Roches- 
tertown was then an imaginary line in 
the woods crossing the Woonkinco River. 
Thereabout were natural fresh meadows, and 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 39 

Oil the river a grist-mill, and a mill pond, the 
same that now, with its wooded banks and 
shaded coves, forms an attractive picture in 
the centre village of Wareham.^ Near the 
mill stood a cluster of dwelling-houses known, 
from the meadows, as the Fresh - meadow 
Village. It was one of the stations of the 
town's migratory school ; and a town meet- 
ing of 1722 specified it as one of the five 
villages in which notice of the arrest of 
" A Ram or Rames in Rochester Running at 
Larg " must be posted : — 

" if in the village called the center at the hous 
of John Clapp 

& if in the villeg called Sepycan at the hous of 
John Briggs 

^ The celebrated Peter Oliver, the last Chief Justice of 
the Province of Massachusetts Bay, was in 1746 an owner 
of this mill pond. He settled at Middleborough in 1744, 
and for thirty years carried on a successful business as an 
iron founder, living in ostentatious style in a sightly man- 
sion known as Oliver Hall. In 1774 he was impeached 
" for receiving his salary from the king." Departing with 
other loyalists for Old England, he wrote in his diary : 
"Boston, 1776, March 27, Here I took my leave of that 
once happy country, where peace and plenty reigned un- 
controuled, till that infernal Hydra Rebellion, with its hun- 
dred Heads, had devoured its happiness, spread desolation 
over its fertile fields, and ravaged the peacefuU mansions 
of its inhabitants." 



40 COLOiXIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

And if in the village called Sneptuet at the 
hous of Capt Edward Winslow 

& if in the fresh meadow village & Weweantet 
at Isaac Bumpus his mill 

«&: if at Mattapoyset village at the house of 
John Hammond " 

As these people were born into a life of 
frugal habits, and had learned to know the 
large value of small things, they could not 
sink into abject poverty. Their wants were 
supplied by their daily labors, and by the 
voyages of their sloops to the islands of the 
West Indies, to which they sent tar, rosin, 
and turpentine, to be exchanged for rum, 
sugar, and molasses. The only allusion to a 
pauper during the period with which this 
narrative has to do is in the town records of 
1 72 1, when it was voted, in regard to an un- 
fortunate neighbor, that " Eleven pounds be 
paid in money to any man that will take and 
keep " him a year, and find him " vettuals & 
close sutable unless the Court Determines 
him to be maintained by his Relations." 

One December day in 1729 the selectmen 
summoned the householders of the town "In 
his Maj^*® name to assemble and meet to 
Geather att ye Meeting house " to consider 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 4 1 

a work of charity. It was announced that 
some townspeople needed aid, and "espe- 
cially ye family of Benjamin Burges De- 
ceased who are in Great want at preasant." 
Then they who had been too parsimonious 
to give anything for the building of a new 
meetinghouse when it was said to be needed, 
opened their cellars and handed out corn 
and wheat by the peck and half bushel, beef 
and pork and butter by the pound, molasses 
by the gallon ; all which were entrusted to 
" Sam Look to Deliver ye same to the use 
of sd family as they shall stand in need." 

The people were generally prosperous in 
their affairs. They had a small commerce 
by sea as early as 1697, when "the Townes 
gennarall Landing place" was established on 
the northerly side of Sippican harbor. ^ A 
wharf was built at the harbor in 1708, and 
for its maintenance a tax of " one shilling in 
money for every boats load of whet saeder 

1 " Whear as Samuel briggs hath alowed a cart way 
through his Lands down to the Townes gennarall Landing 
place on the northerly side of the harber in case sd bridggs 
Receave damage by anny Cart or parson either by break- 
ing or Leaving open.sd briggs his Gattes or Railes he or 
they shall surly pay the whol damage that doth accrew to 
sd briggs thereby." — Rochester l^ozvn Records, 1697. 



42 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

brought on or carried of," was decreed. 
The freeholders of the town were wealthy- 
enough as early as 17 14 to send Samuel 
Prince as their representative to the Great 
and General Court at Boston, and after him 
Thomas Dexter, paying them five shillings 
a day and their expenses. As long as the 
royal government lasted they continued to 
send representatives, one of whom was the 
famous Timothy Ruggles, son of the town 
minister, a man of lordly address, strict in- 
tegrity, high talents, and strong convictions, 
always loyal to the King, even when loyalty 
caused him to lose his property and his 
country. 1 

In 1734 the inhabitants of Mattapoiset 
Village, having complained that they were 
so remote from the centre of the town as 
"to make their Difficulty Great in all publick 
Conserns," were allowed to become a pre- 
cinct, by which they were entitled to a min- 
ister, a parish, and a meeting-house of their 
own ; while they continued to be a part of 

1 In the years immediately preceding the Revokition he 
was leader of the King's party in the legislature. He em- 
barked from Boston with the King's troops in 1775, and 
made his home near Annapolis, Nova Scotia, where he 
died, an exile, in 1795. 



THE LANDS OF SIPPICAN. 43 

the town. In the same year, on the petition 
of "sundry Bumpases," Rochester consented 
to set off its east end to be joined to the 
Agawame Plantation, in the composition of a 
new town, by a boundary described as " be- 
ginning at the moutli of Sepecan River & 
Running up the River to mendalls Bridge 
Thence as ye Rhode now Lieth to plymouth 
till it meets with middleborough line." 

This road still "lieth to Plymouth" as of 
yore. As the traveler worries his horse 
through its wheel-deep sands, a covey of 
partridges breaks out of the berry bushes at 
the roadside, a hare or a gray squirrel scam- 
pers across the ruts, the pale blossoms of a 
clump of house-leeks tell the place where a 
hearthstone once stood, and he may see at 
intervals in the openings of the forest granite 
posts marked with an R and a W, defining 
the exact line between the old town and the 
new. 



II. 




THE AGAWAME PLANTATION. 

DJOINING the east end of Roches- 
ter was the Agawame Plantation of 
about eight thousand acres. Its early 
history has been preserved in an old Booke, 
whose yellow leaves of English paper, water- 
marked with crown and fleur-de-lis, are writ- 
ten in quaint characters difficult for an un- 
trained eye to read. 

The territory is mentioned in the early 
records of Plymouth Colony as a discovery : 
"the South Meddowes towards Aggawam 
lately discovered and the convenyent uplands 
there abouts." The colony bought it from 
Indians — " natives of New England " they 
were called, and in 1682 sold it to six English- 
men for two hundred and eighty pounds, 
current money, to obtain the means of build- 
ing a meeting-house in Plymouth town. It 
was more attractive than the colder lands on 
Plymouth shore, where " divers come fields 



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46 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

and little running brookes," seen under a 
December sky, had invited the Mayflower 
pilgrims to stay. It contained many springs 
of sweet water, and small lakes on whose 
shores beaver and otter were trapped. In 
the vast forest which covered the uplands 
deer were hunted and streams ran abounding 
in trout. It had rich salt meadows which 
were intersected by creeks whose marshy 
banks were a resort of curlew and plover, and 
there was abundance of bird life along the 
shores when the mud slopes were left bare by 
the ebbing tide. It lay at the head of the 
bay, whose waters washed it on three sides, 
and its coast line is still indented by coves 
rich in shellfish, is fringed by islands and 
sandy beaches, and fronts the slumbering sea 
by a long ridge of highland from which the 
eye ranges southward as far as the Elizabeth 
Islands, and over as pleasing a panorama of 
sea and shore as is to be found in New Eng- 
land. 

The purchasers, who had divided their es- 
tate into six shares, met and laid out six 
"home lotts" of sixty acres each, "to build 
any hous or housen upon." They met again 
and laid out " sixe tracts of meadow," and to 



THE AGAWAME PLANTATION. 47 

prohibit the making of tar in the common 
forest, they ordered that " not any pine notts 
liing upon ye undevided lands should be 
made use of by any man untill such time as 
ther was an allowance by the said owners soe 
to doe." Desiring to divide more uplands 
and meadows and to lay out "convenient 
publike & private high waies," they appointed 
four of their number to carry on these im- 
provements ; and when they met, in 1696, 
they " declared thar selves contented and 
satisfid with what was don and there set too 
thare handes in the smal bucke where all 
thes devisins ware first writen." 

By this time some dwelling-houses had 
been built. The records of 1688 mention 
the house of Joseph Warren as " now stand- 
ing thare." From him the promontory, near 
to which Bostonians have built their summer 
dwellings, took its name ; it is quaintly de- 
scribed as "bounded by the see esteward 
and southward and northward by his own 
medo on the cove." Other houses were clus- 
tered near a secluded place where 

" A winding wall of mossy stone, 
Frost-flung and broken, lines 
A lonesome acre thinly grown 
With grass and wandering vines," 



48 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

which, in the records, is designated as the 
place where "some persons have been laid 
already at." It was the neighborhood of the 
early settlers ; they lived in sight of the acre, 
and within it they were buried. 

In 1 701 the proprietors, intending " to Laye 
oiite sum hie waye into the Neckes " on the 
bay, looked into their old Booke and found 
that a highway "must of neseseti come over 
the southerd end of Samuel Bate his home 
lots which was veri much damig " to him. 
Therefore each gave him as compensation 
"his sevrel rite in two or three small peses of 
medo," — an illustration of the equity with 
which the members of this agrarian commu- 
nity dealt with each other. In the same year 
two lots of land and a meadow were " laid 
oute two and for the yuse of the ministre." 
In 171 1 it is recorded that they built "a good 
and sufficient pound." A pound-keeper was 
appointed, also two haywards to " bring out 
and impound such cretures " as were found 
in the commons without right to be there, 
for which service they were paid " what shall 
be Judged Reasonable more then what ye 
Law will give for ye poundage." The build- 
ing of the pound, the most ancient of all 



THE AGAWAME PLANTATION. 49 

English institutions, is the first evidence of 
the existence of a village community in 
Agawame. It was needed before there was 
a schoolhouse, a meeting-house, or a town 
organization. 

The authority of the proprietors was still 
supreme in the community. It appears in a 
law which they made to protect the produc- 
tion of turpentine; prohibiting "ani parsen 
from boxing or chiping and milking ani pine 
tre or tres on the common on the penelty of 
payeng Ten Shilengs for everi tre," of which 
fine the informer " shall have won halfe for 
himself e and the other halfe to the proprie- 
ters." Following the custom of ancient Teu- 
tonic farmers who felled wood in a common 
forest and grazed cattle in a common pasture, 
they stinted the pastures, restricting each 
proprietor to graze only " thurtitoo nete catel 
and fouer horses for a sixte parte," or " six 
sheepe instead of one Beast." They ap- 
pointed an officer to watch the pastures to 
see that they were equitably enjoyed and to 
report if any man sent in more cattle than 
his proportion; the watchman "to have his 
horse go into ye Necks freely so long as 
other horses go in." Farmers who were not 



50 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

proprietors were allowed pasturage on un- 
used rights if they brought to the watchman 
" a note or token to his sattisfaxion whose 
Rite they come upon," In winter, when cat- 
tle and horses ran wild in the necks along 
the bay shore, the times of turning in and 
driving out were fixed. In summer the pas- 
tures were stinted severely, excluding all 
cattle or reducing their number, that the grass 
might have a chance to grow. This was 'an 
inconvenience to some of the farmers, but 
they had no relief. The proprietors of Aga- 
wame were lords of the manor, and although 
they owed allegiance to Plymouth there was 
no one who ventured to challenge their au- 
thority. 

Here was the image of a town system 
based upon the rights of property in land. 
Its superintending power was the owners of 
the land in regular meeting assembled, enact- 
ing such regulations as a major part of them 
saw fit, and appointing such ofificers as they 
deemed to be necessary for their purposes. 
In their acts they were preparing for the 
time when their agrarian commune must be 
expanded into a town organized under the 
laws of the province ; when new-comers as 



THE AGAWAME PLANTATION. 5 I 

well as old residents would have an equal 
right to be heard in the town meeting. 

After the shareholders had dedicated " one 
acre for a Burying place," and lands for a 
grist-mill, a saw-mill, and the fisheries, they 
ordered that the common lands be laid out and 
divided to themselves. Their numbers had 
increased and their meetings were not always 
harmonious ; there was a minority whose in- 
dependent spirit often delayed the action of 
the majority and sometimes caused to be 
entered upon the records a formal protest 
against the proceedings. For example, it is 
recorded that, at a meeting in 171 2, "Oliver 
Norris himself being present did desire it 
might be Entred by ye Clarke that he did 
protest agenst ye most of ye votes that 
ware Past." 

At each annual meeting they elected a 
moderator, listened to the clerk as he read the 
records from their old Booke, adopted their 
customary orders, refreshed themselves at the 
bar of the inn and went their ways. As years 
passed by, and estates were divided from 
father to sons, their transactions decreased in 
importance, and their business was finally re- 
duced to re-surveys of boundary lines — in 



52 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

dispute because the old landmarks (a " whit 
ock tree," or a " stake with a heepe of stones 
laide to it ") had disappeared, to the renting 
of an island, and to the care of the alewives 
which, with each return of spring, entered the 
Agawame River. The old Booke relates some 
of their proceedings during this time, — as, 
for example, that in 1763 they undertook to 
establish a free school by appropriating for 
that purpose two promissory notes which had 
been given for two catches of fish in the 
river, of the value of a few Spanish dollars ; 
that in 1773 they undertook to increase the 
alewife fishery by making a tide-way up Red 
Brook into White Island Pond. This hopeful 
speculation turned out as profitless as the 
South Sea Bubble; but when its thirty pro- 
moters met they were in such jovial spirits in 
anticipation of the success of their enterprise, 
that their meeting, at the village inn, was 
called in the records a merry meeting, and 
when their overflowing bumpers had been 
emptied they named their new river the 
Merry Meeting River, and voted *'to carry 
Herring into sd River to Breed." 

Often at their annual meetings they 
" Voted to vandue Wickets Island for plant- 



THE AGAWAME PLANTATION. 53 

ing," — an island off the camp at Onset, — 
and as late as 1791, touched with sympathy 
for the miserable relics of the original owners 
of their ancestors' lands, they ordered their 
treasurer " to pay out the money to the poor 
Ingings that he received for the use of the 
island." 

And so a run of fish and a little island con- 
tinued to be their business until they met no 
more. All their interests had been absorbed 
by the larger interests of the town. But their 
ancient and well-thumbed Booke of Records 
remains as the foundation of the titles by 
which every estate in that large territory is 
now held. It also preserves the quaint 
names of the old landmarks : — there is " the 
big rocke nigh ye gret salte poun which run- 
neth into the Se ; " there is "the broocke 
which Cometh oute of the willo swamp ; " 
there is "the plas wher the fenc of the pine 
neke goieth into the water;" there is "ye 
Long Look" down the bay, and "the small 
frech poun ; " there is the ford of the river 
called "the place whear the horses com- 
only goe over/' and " ye old mans spring," 
and "ye sandy pointe at ye upland," 
and " the letel harber," and " that island 



54 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

of flates bounded round with ye chanel." 
The Booke preserves the first names of the 
promontories jutting into Manomet Bay, as 
it was then called, of the islands, the coves, 
the creeks, the springs, and the many nooks 
of meadow which stretch into the pine woods 
from the salt marshes by the shore. 






III. 

COLONIAL FARMERS. 

ijHE largest landowner in the plantation 
was Israel Fearing, He kept a diary 
*^' of local events, blended with some 
carefully written accounts, stating the values 
of all sorts of things entering into the com- 
merce of his times. It makes a picture of the 
farming life of his neighbors, framed in a 
parchment-bound volume on which is inscribed 
" Israel Fearing his Booke bought lanuary the 
lo day 1722" — when George the First was 
King. This antique book tells of trades and 
barters, of agreements and indentures, of im- 
pressments into the King's military service, of 
marriages and trials by His Majesty's justice 
of the peace, and whatever else concerned the 
people living upon the farms. It tells us that 
these people were shrewd in their bargains, 
honest in their reckonings, industrious in 
their habits, and bound by a close economy 



56 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

which made them contented with small sav- 
ings and small gains. The whole family — 
sons, daughters, and indentured servants, took 
up their daily work before sunrise, suspended 
it only for their meals, and ended it only 
when the candles were put out at early bed- 
time. The women did the housework, tended 
the hens, the geese, and the calves, scoured 
the brass warming-pans and pewter dishes, 
spun flax and wool yarns, and wove them into 
cloths from which the clothing and bedding 
of the family were made by their own hands ; 
and if more was made than was needed at 
home, it was bartered away. The purpose of 
all was to get out of the farm every farthing 
that it would yield, and to squander nothing. 
These men and women were of pure Eng- 
lish blood, of an even social condition, de- 
scended from those who had come to the 
coasts of Massachusetts between the years 
1620 and 1650. Their farm labors were too 
exacting to allow many opportunities for men- 
tal culture ; but they were people of good 
sense, who feared God and honored the King, 
who wrote the English language as well as it 
was commonly written by the people of Eng- 
land at that time, and better than it is written 



COLONIAL FARMERS. $7 

by some New England farmers to-day. Their 
peculiar phrases and grotesque forms of 
speech had grown out of the fashions of Puri- 
tanism ; and if their writings amuse us by the 
comical combination of letters which formed 
their words, it is because they often wrote by 
sound ; although they made peculiar devia- 
tions from their phonetic system (as in writ- 
ing idpsland for island), and sometimes they 
spelled words as they are spelled in the 
English Bible, which, with Bunyan's Pilgrim's 
Progress, first printed at Boston in 1681, was 
their principal reading. They scorned punc- 
tuation in their writings, and in the use of cap- 
ital letters they were all at sea. 

The wonder is that they could write at all. 
When we consider their isolated situations, 
that there were but few schools in the colony, 
and these were of short duration and of low 
grade, that all laws intended to maintain 
schools had been, as the legislators declared, 
" shamefully neglected," we must attribute 
the ability of the farmers to write so well as 
they did to an education received by the fire- 
side at home. 

Their principal interests were in the use 
of the soil, which they fertilized with fish and 



58 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

sea-weeds, producing abundant crops of corn, 
rye, wheat, oats, and flax. They also traded 
in peltries, fish, and timber. They gathered 
iron ore from bogs and ponds, and turpentine 
from pine-trees. So valuable was the right 
to gather turpentine regarded that it was 
specially mentioned in deeds of woodlands, 
granting " All ye privilidge of milking of pine 
trees." Their larder was bountifully sup- 
plied with food, and they supplemented their 
tables with game from the forests, with water- 
fowl and shore birds, which frequented the 
maritime parts of the plantation in great 
numbers. Besides what food the sea liberally 
furnished, they had a choice from flesh of 
beef, mutton, venison, partridge, and wild 
turkeys. 

They dealt with each other in trade by 
barter, and accounts were allowed to stand 
open for years before they were balanced. 
When the amounts had been carefully reck- 
oned and certified, the balance was adjusted 
with a promise to rectify thereafter any mis- 
take. Here are some illustrations from the 
queer and precise entries in the old book : — 

1 729. " Reconed with Joseph blakmor and thare 
is due him one bushall of wheat and 12 bushalls 



COLONIAL FARMERS. 59 

of otes and 11 bushalls of inden corn and one 
shilling " 

1 73 1. "Reconedwith margret bates as Execter 
to har husband and ol acounts balanced A mistak 
in Reconing 6 shilling for my hos " 

1733. " Reconed with Ebnezer Swift and thare 
is a mistak of 2 quarts of maleses " 

1738. "Reconed with Ebnezer Luce and 
acounts balanced from the begining of the world 
to the date here of " 

1746. "Reconed with Epram Tobey and 
acounts ballenced all but ye 6 pounds and 12 
Shillings Left for consideration " 

1747. "Reconed with Nathaniel chubback 
And Acounts balanced and hee saith he is sattes 
fied about ye fouer pound and will say Nomore " 

1748. "Reconed with Olever Nores and 
acounts balenced and thare is due to me twelve 
Shillings in mony and one days worck " 

1750. "Reconed with Ester Savery before 
biniamin Bese and She and I promas If thare 
bee any mestack to Rit it " 

Accounts with laborers were written in the 
book ; and it was not forgotten to charge for 
" time loost," even when it was lost in fever- 
and-ague fits: — 



60 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

"January the 28 day 1727 Theopilus Wood 
hiered him self to mee for i Yeare for 36 pounds " 

"April — Dr to siknes the fever and ago 4 fites 
one vveke and three the next " 

"febuary 1736 Samuel bates to worck with 
me 6 mounth for 22 pounds and if he loos Any 
time to abate acordingly and If I se cause to 
have him make up the los of timme after he hath 
made his Salt hay he is to du it " 

"Novembers 1737 Ebnezer bessee to work 
for mee to 10 day of March at night with his own 
ax and I am to find him meet drink washing and 
loging And I am to give him the vallew of 10 
pounds but not in mony and hee is to cut 2 cords 
of wood in a day when hee doth no other work " 

Another bargain was made with this man 
and his axe to work eight months, — 

" and I am to pay him one half in goods and the 
other in bills of credit and if I think he dont ern 
his wages he is to go Away " 

Two Indians who had agreed to dig a ditch 
were paid in rum, cider, corn, pork, " 2 mugs 
of fieep I knife i Ax i Shurt i diner," 

The following are examples of bargains 
recorded in the book : — 

" Memarandum of a bargen with John Nores 
and Roulan Swift for pine wood abouf y^ going 



COLONIAL FARMERS. 6 1 

over y« River on y^ Northerly Side and I am to 
have two Shillings per cord and thay are to cut 
off y^ pine If thay can git it down and thay are to 
cut one lood At y^ Uperind of y^ Loot and If they 
cannot git them down then I am to Loos y*^ wood 
and they to Loos thare Labour " 

" A bargen with Jonathan Chubbuck — hee is 
to clear a peace of ground of mine at ye River 
for one pound and one Shilling And hold plow 
for 6 Shillings and hee is to plant ye ground 
and how 3 times and I am to plow ye ground and 
find ye seed and I am to have one half And hee 
is to gather ye corn and to cut ye Stocks and wee 
are to devid In ye heap And Shock and hee Is 
to how in ye Rie and Reep and Shock ye rie and 
wee are to devid in ye Shock and hee to find ye 
rie and I to put in my creaters as I ues to dow " 

"A bargin with hanary Sanders Juner for pine 
wood to cut it on the South Side of ye Croked 
River and to put on bord y^ Sloop hee to have 6 
Shillings and I to have y^ Rest and hee is to cut 
20 cords on ye furder side of ye Muddy cove and 
hee is to have 8 Shillings old ten when hee hath 
put it on boord ye Sloop and I ye rest of ye mony." 

Whatever v^as wanted by one neighbor 
could be obtained in barter from others. 

"April 1737 Receved of Joseph Giford two 
hox sets of melases for my turpen tine one hun- 



62 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

dred and 6 gallons 4 shillings and 2 pence the 
gallon one hoxet one hundred and 7 gallons " 

A load of hay was exchanged for five pairs 
of new shoes, which were afterwards sold 
with stockings made by Israel Fearing's 
eldest daughter Ann, and a skin for a pair of 
breeches, as stated in this account : — 

"february 2od 1745 marck hascul Dr for one 
Lood of hay fouer pound and 12 shillings old 
tener. Recived of marck hascul five pars of 
Shues fouer pounds 12 Shilling old ten 

" April 25 day 1745 Jonathan Chubback Dr for 
one pare of Shues twenty shillings If hee pay it 
in one month And If not then to give mee twenty 
two shillings 

" July 1746 Elezer King D'' for one 

pare of Shues . . . ^01-05-00 
to one pare of Stockens of 

Ann 00-16-00 

to one Seen for briches . 00-05-00 
to patterns and thread and 

tow cloth 00-05-00 " 

The book shows that the variety of the com- 
modities exchanged included cradles and 
coffins, cloths, and clothing. To the widow 
Margret Bates "hordes and nayles for a 
cofen " were supplied, and to Thomas Bates 



COLONIAL FARMERS. 6^ 

"hordes and posts for your cradel," and 
" timber for your house." 

Swapping horses was a common form of 
barter. A note in the old book reads : — 

" John bump promased to give mee fouer 
pounds old tener by ye foot of ye year beetween 
our mars in ye Swap " 

Some of the farmers built scows for trans- 
porting wood, and sloops for freighting it to 
market, and also craft for fishing and whaling. 
A launch of a vessel, which was usually built 
in the woods, sometimes more than a mile 
from the water, was an event which attracted 
general attention. It was loaded on two 
pairs of wheels, and was hauled by many 
yoke of oxen to the launching place. The 
wheels were then run into the water until 
the vessel floated off. Whaling voyages in 
which the farmers were associated occupied 
but a few months at sea, as the blubber was 
brought home in casks and tried out on 
shore. The old book says : — 

"febuary 26 in 1737 agread with Josiah peary 
for Josiah Wood to go this Spring coming A 
Whael Vige with him for 5 pounds and 5 shillings 
per mounth from the time he goeth from hom 
And one pound of whale bone more in all " 



64 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

" March the 28 day 1737 

Josiah Wood went Easterd on the Whale Viage 
Augest the 12 day att night Josiah Wood was 

cleared from Josiah peary from whalin " 

The outcome of this voyage was probably 
in the following memorandum : — 

"desemberthe i day 1737 Receved of Josiah 
peary forteen pounds And he saide If the mony 
is not good he will take it and give me better " 

One of the laws of the province required 
the farmers to send to a tanner all " hides or 
skins as either by casualty or slaughter came 
to hand;" it forbade butchers, curriers, and 
shoemakers to " exercise the feat or mystery 
of a tanner," and it forbade him to exercise 
any other trade. The farmers had accounts 
with tanners like the following : — 

" Ichabd King had of me 2 skens to dres in 
1733 december 6 day to 4 mor skens to tan for 
me the one maid 47 one 52 one 51 pounds the 
other a cones sken : the 52 paide for in parte of 
excainging of a hos in 1734 to 2 doges skens to 
dres and 2 sheep skens in 1735 to one cow hide " 

This tanner took in payment of his account 
corn and rye and " one dog " to balance it. 
Some took one half of the skins in payment 
for the exercise of their " mystery : " — 



COLONIAL FARMERS. 65 

"April 1737 cared to Ebenezer Peary to dres 
one hos hide for a bage one cow hide and 4 kepes 
Scenes to tan and to curey to the halves — Dr to 
one calves Seen that he dresed and I am to have 
the neext " 

The currency w^as so bad that leather was 
sometimes used as an equivalent of money ; 
as in 1749, "paide to Roulan Tupper one 
pound and Seventeen Shillings and Sixpence 
in leather." 

Iron was also used in the same manner : — 

" desember 1744 Sold to mr Joshua bensen 20 
bushalls of corn and 20 bushalls of rye for twelve 
shillings per bushall and to be paide in bloomary 
Iron to be delivered at my hous at four pounds 
old tener per hundred but good liron 

November ye 18 1746 benianan Eles D"^ for 
Iron to be paid in Smith worck twenty-fouer 
pounds ten Shillings and Six pence " 

So also rye and corn were of value in 
trading : — 

"John Fearing bought a gun of Nehemia bese 
for 3 bushalls of corn and 3 bushalls of rye at six 
pounds twelve Shillings and If ye corn or rye 
fecheth more by the 18 day of Augest he is to 
give it and to pay for mending his gun If he Re- 
deemeth her " 

The prices of all things were affected by 
the varying value of colonial bills of credit, 



66 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

which, according to a letter written by Gov- 
ernor Belcher at Boston in 1739, were "not 
worth five shillings in the pound of the cur- 
rent silver money of this Province." This 
currency, known as old tenor, described in 
the General Court records as " printed bills 
of equal value with money," was first issued 
by the Massachusetts colony in 1690 and 1691 
to defray the cost of an expedition sent to 
capture Quebec. The first legislature under 
the charter of 1692 made these bills "equiva- 
lent to money," by which was meant equiva- 
lent to gold and silver coinage, for all pay- 
ments except in specified cases. Their credit 
was maintained by receiving them in public 
payments at a premium. After the passage 
of this legal-tender act gold and silver coins 
were rapidly exported to England. Other 
issues of printed bills in subsequent years 
were made " equal to money," and it became 
a general complaint that gold and silver coins 
were "not to be had." Trade came to a 
stand-still. Farm produce was the best of all 
values. 

In 1737 a new issue of paper money, called 
new tenor, was made. It was to be redeemed 
after five years " in silver money at six shil- 



COLONIAL FARMERS. 6/ 

lings and eight pence per ounce." One shil- 
ling of this was valued as three shillings of 
old tenor. Representatives whose pay had 
been six shillings a day for attendance at the 
legislature and for traveling to and fro, count- 
ing twenty miles as a day's journey, were 
now paid two shillings a day in new tenor 
bills. But the redemption promised was not 
made, and by a further repudiation, four 
pounds for one was fixed as the rate of ex- 
changing old tenor for new. 

In 1749 by legal enactment forty-five shil- 
lings of old tenor, or eleven shillings and 
three pence of new, were redeemed by a 
Spanish-milled dollar ; and it was also enacted 
that after March, 1750, all debts and con- 
tracts " shall be understood to be payable in 
coined silver" at these rates. The means of 
making this adjustment were furnished by 
the receipt of one hundred and eighty-three 
thousand six hundred and forty-nine pounds 
two shiUings and seven pence sterling granted 
by Parliament "to reimburse the Province 
their Expenses in taking and securing for his 
Majesty the Island of Cape Breton and its 
dependances." ^ 

1 " Sunday Aug. 6. The Mermaid man-of-war, Capt Mon. 
tague sailed from Portsmouth for Boston having on board 



68 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'' S BAY. 

The value of the colonial pound in its rela- 
tion to the Spanish dollar was now tixed by- 
law ; it was equal to three dollars and thirty- 
three and one third cents in silver, and a shil- 
ling was one sixth of a dollar. This currency 
and its reckonings continued in use in New 
England more than a hundred years. 

The man whose accounts and writings 
have been quoted was a representative of 
the thrifty class of farmers of his time. His 
book shows that he was sought for as an 
arbitrator in differences between neighbors ; 
as when in 1747 he charged Zacceus Bump 
" for going to plimoth to stop ye action 
with Squer Bartlet £,\- More to going to 

650,000 ounces of foreign silver coin and ten tons of cop- 
per purchased by Sir Peter Warren and Mr. Bollan, agents 
for New England, with the money paid them at the Ex- 
chequer, for indemnifying that colony for their expenses 
about Cape Breton." — Getitleman' s Magazine, August, i74g. 
" I congratulate you, Gentlemen, upon the favour of 
Divine Providence in the Safe Arrival of the Money 
allowed by the Parliament of Great Britain, whereby we 
are enabled in a good Measure to pay off the great Debt 
contracted by the Charge of the late War & now lying 
upon this Province ; And We by the Blessing of God upon 
Our wise & faithful management of this Advantage, deliver 
this Province from the Evils & Mischiefs arising from the 
uncertain & sinking value of the Paper Medium." — Lieut.- 
Goz'ernor Phips, Nove7nber 2^, iy4g. 



COLONIAL FARMERS. 69 

Rogester for power of Aturny fech Squire 
Winslo down here ;^i-S-6." By his acqui- 
sitions he came to be regarded as one of that 
class which the colony court had described 
as "Substanciall men that are prudent psons 
and of considerable estates in the Lands of 
Scippican." ^ He received the first commis- 
sion given to an inhabitant of Wareham as 
His Majesty's justice of the peace, an oi^ce 
of great dignity. His court records, written 
in a medley of farming accounts and notes 
of bargains, contain only the two cases here 
quoted of cursing and swearing in violation 
of the law, indicating that conversational 
language was, in his day, kept under a closer 
restraint than it is now : — 

" October 21-1748 Ebnezer Swift of falmouth 
for profain Swaring two times in my hearing paide 

1 At Israel Fearing's death in June, 1754, his real estate 
was appraised at ;^4,ooo, and his personal estate at ;^5io. 
In the latter there was pewter ware ;^is, but no china 
ware ; there were two saddle mares, two saddles, two carts, 
but no vehicle for traveling purposes. The inventory 
specified ;^ 2-13-4 in " Loombs and Tacklg," ;i^5 in books, 
;^225 in money and notes, ^'>,i in bedding and furniture, 
j^55 in " Chest-drawers and chests," £i(i in apparel. 

His wife Martha, daughter of Benjamin and Ann Gibbs 
of Sandwich, where her birth is recorded "on ye last day 
of Oct 1699," died in September, 1754. 



yo COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

his fine twenty Shillings old tener to mee Israel 
Fearing Justes of peac " 

"March y® 2d day 1749 A complant came to 
mee of Joseph Savery of Rogester cursing Ensin 
Ebnezer burg two times and hee paid his fine 
twenty Shillings old tener to mee Israel Fearing 
Just of peac " 

At his death the account-book fell into the 
hands of his son Noah, as executor, who, after 
dividing the large estate, made this quaint 
note concerning the remnants : — 

"April 1755 — The a Count of what Every one 
Received That was Fathers Estate old tener. 
Benjamin Had a pair of Shues . . •;^i-5-o 
John Had a pair of Nee Buckels Silver 4-0-0 
David Had a Beaver Hat .... 4-0-0 

David Had Cash ....... i-io-o 

I Had one wosted Cap and a pair of 

old Shoues i-io-o 

I had a ox and Benj" Had another ox 30-0-0 " 




IV. 




THE SQUIRE. 

OHN, who received the silver knee- 
buckles, having taken unto himself 
a wife, became the proprietor of 
the farm on Fearing Hill ; and having been 
appointed to succeed his father in the office 
of His Majesty's Justice of the peace, the 
title Esquire was written as an appendage to 
his name. The people, looking upon him as 
a unique figure in their community, spoke of 
him as The Squire and treated him with 
respect, for they regarded him as the repre- 
sentative of " our Soveraign Lord the King." 
To speak profane words in his presence was 
an offense punishable by a fine, or by a sit- 
ting in the town stocks. He had to do with 
the domestic as well as with the civil life of 
the town. By his consent only could indent- 
ures of service be entered into;^ and a 

1 " Rebeekah wickod indenters at Capt Edward Wens- 
lows And she is to live With me fourteen vears and nine 



72 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

funeral could not take place " on the Lord's 
Day or evening following," except by his per- 
mission, to be given only in urgent cases. 
He was not nominated for the office by the 
ruling power because he was wise and learned 
in the law ; but rather because he was one 
of the "most sufficient persons" dwelling in 
the county, known to be loyal, of dignified 
deportment, and possessed of lands or tene- 
ments yielding a certain annual value. The 
oath to which he subscribed bound him to 

mounths from 2d day of Ma}-, 1729." — Israel Fearing s 
Book. 

An Indenture of service was a written agreement entered 
into with the consent of two of His Majesty's justices of 
the peace for the county. By its usual form the woman 
servant bound herself to learn the " Art Trade or Mystery " 
of her master ; to dwell at his house ; obey his reasonable 
commands gladly ; his " Secrets keep close ; Damage not 
willfully to do ; Goods not to waste, embezel, purloine or 
lend to others ; at Cards, Dice, or any other unlawful 
Game not to play ; Fornication not to commit, nor Matri- 
mony contract with any Person during said Term." On 
the other part the master was bound to cause her to be 
taught " the Trade Art or Mystery of Spinning both Wol- 
len and Linen and to read English ; " to provide for her 
good and sufficient " Victualls and Drink Washing and 
Lodging and Cloaths of all kinds ; " and at the end of her 
term to dismiss her with " two Good Suits of Apparell for 
all parts of her Bod\-, one for Holly Days and one for 
Working Days." 



and a 


general 


"ices 


in the 


_:dbe 


r.? ~T'>- 


ersrri 


: ; vi- 


rri"srls 


; ; that 




with 




:—t ex- 



lare i'ivearmg, nor cursmg c: 
tures; no dnuikennes? - 
debtors must 

money or with _: _; ji: 
tracts finnn die ^records written bv His Ma- 
jesty's justice oi the peace i t 
executed the !aws of the pre r^ re . — 

" : 7 t: -e 2^ Dav i-f: The- Jt :t- 



l>c: 



74 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

on The ground and Spit in his face and Poled his 
hare and Rubed his Ears in Wareham the sum 
of Four Shilings To me " 

"May 23 Day 1763 Then Eliz Bump the wife 
of Juhn Bump Junr paid a fine of Ten Shihngs to 
me for Burning the Daughter of Jonathan Chub- 
back named Susanah Tho she said she did it 
By an axatant " 

"December 5 Day 1767 then Samuel Barrows 
of wareham parsonly appeared and acknowledged 
himself Gilty of Being over Tacken with Strong 
Lecker and paid a fine of 5 Shilings to me " 

"May 1769 then Joshuea morse personly and 
acknowledged him Self Gilty of prefane Swaring 
at Benjamin Fearings Before Josiah Carver 
Grand Jurey man and paid Six Shilings to me " 

" Whereas William Parcker of Wareham La- 
borer Stands Convicted Before me John Fearing 
Esqre one of his majesties Justics of the pece 
for the County of Plymoth In a complaint by 
Jabez Burggs of sd wareham Cordwinder For 
Theft — the Damages and Corst of Proscution 
amounting to the sum of Two pounds Seventeen 
Shillings & nine pence Lawful money — & he the 
sd William not having any Estate To Satisfie sd 
Judgment I do In obediance to ye Law of this 
Province put bound out and Set over Ye said 
William to the said Jabez and to his bars or 



THE SQUIRE. ■ 75 

asignes To Serve him or them the Term of one 
year From the Date hearof he Finding him Good 
and Sufficent meet & Drink Lodging & apperel 
During Said Term — and I do Injoin ye sd Wil- 
liam Parcker to serve ye sd Jabez Burggs or as- 
sighns faithfully During Said Term Wittness my 
hand this Fif tenth Day of March Ad 17 71 " 

If offenders did not pay the fines imposed 
upon them, he could place them in the stocks, 
or order them to be whipped. Persons who 
lived disorderly, ''misspending their precious 
time," he could send to the work-house, to 
the stocks, or to the whipping-post, at his 
discretion. He could break open doors 
where liquors were concealed to defraud His 
Majesty's excise. He could issue hue-and- 
cries for runaway servants and thieves. 
There are instances on record in which a 
justice of the peace issued his warrant to 
arrest the town minister about whose ortho- 
doxy there were distressing rumors, and re- 
quired him to be examined upon matters of 
doctrine and faith. But a more pleasing 
function of his office was to marry those who 
came to him for marriage, bringing the town 
clerk's certificate that their nuptial intentions 
had been proclaimed at three religious meet- 



76 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

ings in the parish during the preceding fort- 
night. If the bride was an insolvent debtor, 
and it was necessary to prove that she was 
possessed of no goods whatever, she was 
married " with no more clothes on than her 
shift ; " and this fact was certified in the 
justice's record.^ For the marriage fee he 
claimed four shillings and gave "out of it six- 
pence to the town clerk," as said a law of 1716. 
Not always did the town clerk receive the 
sixpences ; for the dignity of office did not 
hinder His Majesty's justice of the peace 
from practicing the parsimony of the times. 

1 " In her smock with head and foot all bare," as Chau- 
cer wrote. Hence they were called smock marriages. 
According to the records of Kingston in Rhode Island, 
" Nathaniel Bundy took ye widow Mary Parmenter in ye 
highway with no other clothing but shifting or smock on 
ye evening of the 20th day of April 1724 and was joined 
together in that honorable estate of matrimony per me 
John Saunders, Justice." Five men were witnesses of 
this marriage. The same records certify, in February 
1719, a ceremony in which the bridegroom "took her in 
Marriage after she had gone four times a cross the High- 
way in only her shift and hair lace and no other clothing." 
There was no law requiring this form of marriage ; yet 
the minister of a town on Buzzard's Bay wrote : " Sep- 
tember ye 5:: 1749: then did nathan Shearman take the 
widow mary tailor in her Shift without head Cloath and 
bare foot and led her a Cross the highway where two 
highways mett as the Law directs in such cases and was 
then married by me phillip taber minister of Dartmouth." 




V. 

THE BIRTH OF A TOWN. 




S the farmers of Agawame were sep- 
arated by fifteen miles of forest from 
Plymouth meeting-house, they felt the 
need of a parish and a town government of 
their own. So also felt the farmers at the 
east end of Rochester, who, having obtained 
a separation from their old parish in 1734, de- 
sired to unite with those of Agawame in form- 
ing a new town. No one was active to ac- 
complish this end until Israel Fearing went, 
in April, 1738, to lobby the matter with the 
selectmen of Plymouth. He made a second 
journey thither in May, carrying the petition 
of himself and his neighbors for a precinct. 
The result was so satisfactory to him that af- 
ter the meeting had adjourned he treated the 
selectmen at an expense of three shillings, 
and returned at once to Agawame to prepare 
himself to take a petition to the legislature at 
Boston. 



78 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

Early in the morning of the 29th of May, 
1738, his mare having been newly shod and 
carefully saddled, Israel Fearing started on 
the journey to Boston. The road which he 
traveled was narrow and tortuous — a lane 
through a forest, having rocks and quagmires 
and long reaches of sand, which made it al- 
most impassable to wheels, if any there were 
to be ventured upon it. Branches of large 
trees were stretched over it, so that it was 
unvisited by sunlight except at those places 
where it crossed the clearings on which a sol- 
itary husbandman had established his home- 
stead, or where it followed the sandy shores 
of some of those picturesque ponds which 
feed the rivers emptying into Buzzard's Bay. 
Occasionally a deer bounded across the 
path, and foxes were seen running into the 
thickets. 

The nimble mare, accustomed to such ways, 
carried her rider at a steady pace during the 
day, baiting at Scituate village, and reaching 
Roxbury Neck about five o'clock in the after- 
noon, where a stop for a half hour was made 
at the St. George tavern. From this elevated 
site the traveler saw the steeples of Boston, 
its harbor lively with vessels, the King's ships 



THE BIRTH OF A TOWN. 79 

riding before the town, Cambridge and the 
shores of the mainland in the distance. Hav- 
ing refreshed himself and the mare he trotted 
along the narrow way leading into the great 
town, on which the most prominent object at- 
tracting his attention was a gallows standing 
at the gate. 

When he rode within he found in every- 
thing around him a wonderful contrast to the 
quiet and monotonous scenes which had al- 
ways surrounded his life at Agawame. The 
streets were paved with cobble-stones, and 
were thronged with hackney-coaches, sedan- 
chairs, four-horse shays, and calashes, in some 
of which gayly dressed people were riding, 
the horses being driven by their negro slaves. 
Gentlemen on handsome saddle-horses paced 
by him, in comparison with whom he made a 
sorry figure. But he was reassured of his 
own manliness when he encountered a flock 
of sheep, and ox-carts just in from the coun- 
try laden with fire-wood, fagots, and hay. 
He noticed with amazement the stately brick 
houses and their pleasant gardens, in which 
pear-trees and peach-trees were blooming. In 
the Mall, gentlemen dressed in embroidered 
coats, satin waistcoats, silken hose, and full 



80 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

wigs, were taking an after-dinner stroll with 
ladies who were attired in bright silks and 
furbelowed scarfs, and adorned with artificial 
flowers and patches on their cheeks. Boston 
was an active, thrifty trading town ; its shops, 
distilleries, wind-mills, and rope-walks were 
all agoing ; and as he turned his mare into 
King Street and pulled up at the Bunch of 
Grapes tavern, which, being near to the Town 
House, was conveniently situated for the 
business on which he was bent, he probably 
felt that in such a wealthy and worldly place 
his simple errand would receive but little at- 
tention. At the shutting in of the evening, 
James Warren, an influential member of the 
legislature from Plymouth, came to his assist- 
ance. To him the petition was intrusted, and 
having paid him twenty shillings, Israel Fear- 
ing rode back to Agawame. 

A precinct did not meet the public wants, 
and next year Ebenezer Burgess, Thomas 
Hamlen, and their neighbors petitioned the 
legislature for a town ; " finding ourselves," 
they said, " too small and Impotent to main- 
tain the Public Worship of God." Israel 
Fearing's record of the business was this : — 

"April 1738 going to the Selectmen to work 
the meeting for a presink one day ;^i-oo-oo 



THE BIRTH OF A TOWN. 8 1 

" May 1738 going to the town of plymoth with 
a petision two dayes Mony to treet the Select 
men 3 shillings 

"May *''2g 1738 going to carey the peticion to 
boston one pound — and twenty shillings of mony 
to Cornol Woring 

"March ^'^i day 1739 going to plymouth to 
Cornol Woring to fetch the Copey of the Cort 
for a precenk and paid to Cor Woring three shil- 
lings " 

His book tells us nothing of the discus- 
sions by the farmers when he reported to 
them the result of his journeys across the 
wilderness to Boston, carrying in his saddle- 
bags their hopes for self-government and the 
shillings which they had contributed to pay 
the expenses of this momentous enterprise. 
But the book tells who his backers were, and 
what number of shillings each gave or prom- 
ised to give to procure the act by which the 
plantation was converted to a town. Here is 
the list : — 

" Recevd to goo with the petion of my 

own mony 10 shillings 

and of mr John Eles 05 

and of mr Joshua gibbes .... 05 
and of mr Samuel buerg .... 05 



82 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

and of mr thomas bates the promas of 05 shillings 
and of mr Ebnezer beese .... 04 
and of mr Ebnezer Swift the promas of 05 
and of mr Uriah Savery .... 05 

and of mr Jirey Swift 05 

and of mr micah gibbes 05 " 

Governor Belcher signed the act incorpo- 
rating the town July 10, 1739, and was soon 
after removed from office. He was succeeded 
by Governor Shirley, who, ambitious of royal 
favor and thinking that the number of towns 
.was increasing too rapidly, determined that 
Wareham should be the last " until His Ma- 
jesty's pleasure shall be known." 

The little town then became the text for a 
correspondence between the governor and 
the British ministry, the object of which was 
to establish the right of the King of England 
to limit the number of representatives in the 
colonial legislature. The governor wrote to 
London that an increase in the number of 
towns was an increase of representatives ; 
that the present number of these men " hath 
been sufficient to embarrass His Majesty's 
Government here," and, taking the act incor- 
porating the town of Wareham as an illustra- 
tion of the facility with which towns had been 



THE BIRTH OF A TOWN. 83 

created, he proposed " to prevent the further 
increase of representatives " by refusing to 
give his assent to any act incorporating a 
new town or dividing an old one until it had 
been approved by the King. 

But if His Majesty had inquired of the 
farmers of Wareham, who had so sparingly 
counted out their shillings to Israel Fearing, 
he would have learned that they had no 
money to give for the expenses of a repre- 
sentative at Boston, and that they never had 
desired to be represented there. 

The town having been incorporated, the 
next thing for the farmers to do was to hold 
a town meeting. 





VI. 



THE TOWN'S MIND, 




HE object of all town meetings was "to 
know the Town's Mind ; " whether it 
was for doing this, or for doing that, 
or for doing something else. In the warrants 
it was written with capital letters, and was 
alluded to as if it were a distinguished per- 
son, slow to act, and to be consulted on every 
matter, small and great. On the sixth day of 
August, 1739, the Town's Mind of Wareham, 
of the County of Plymouth, of the Province 
of Massachusetts Bay, was summoned for the 
first time " to make Choice of a town Clark 
and all other town officers." 

The town clerk recorded in the town book 
the decisions of the Town's Mind. In the 
same book he recorded births, marriages, and 
deaths ; transfers of pews in the meeting- 
house ; descriptions of articles lost and found ; 
of estrays taken up, as " a Reed Stray Hefar 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 85 

two years old and she hath sum white In the 
face." Here he also recorded the marks by 
which farmers identified their cattle, although 
the reader of the records may suppose that 
they were the marks by which farmers them- 
selves were identified. For example : "Joshua 
Brigs mark Is a Scware Crop In the under 
side of ye Right ear;" "Thomas Whittens 
mark Is a mackrels tales In Both Ears." 

There is no romance in the clerk's annals ; 
they deal only with such facts as interested 
the townspeople, who were accustomed to 
think more about their woodlands, crops, cat- 
tle, and salt marshes than about anything else. 
It must be confessed that, important man as 
he was, he did not always write the records 
in a scholarly style nor in a readable hand. 
He was frugal-minded. His closely written 
lines, running zigzag like a rail fence across 
the pages, reveal a desire to be saving of the 
book, and the formation of his words shows 
that no extravagance could be allowed in the 
use of the alphabet. The Wareham book 
testifies that one of the qualifications of can- 
didates for this office was an entire want of 
skill to write the English language correctly ; 
a want which sore beset the men and women 



86 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

of colonial New England, notwithstanding the 
compulsory school laws. 

In the judgment of the Town's Mind the 
honors of the clerk's office were a fair com- 
pensation for its labors ; he was elected to 
serve for nothing; as, in 1761, "maid chois 
ot Beniamin Fearing Town Clarck for the 
year Insuing without fees from ye Town and 
he Excepted." Sometimes the clerk was 
granted a small amount of money, to be raised 
by a general tax, that he might piece out the 
fees allowed him by law for special work, 
called in the vernacular "the Proffites of the 
Townes Bookes ; " for example, Rochester 
town, in 171 1, "agreed with Peter Blackmer 
that twenty shillings in money should be 
raised by Rate to satisfie him for keeping 
of the town Booke for about eleven years 
past." 

The treasurer of the town did not fare so 
well. A province law declared that he should 
have " such allowance for his services as the 
town shall agree to;" and when he was 
elected the Town's Mind agreed to allow him 
nothing. For example : 1745, "chose Samuel 
Burge Town treasurer and he is to Serve the 
Town for Love and good will." After a time 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 8/ 

six shillings a year — or "sex shelangs," as 
the clerk of the period wrote it — were, 
allowed the treasurer for his services, and in 
1780 his salary was increased to ten dollars. 
This extravagance can be accounted for by 
the fact that the paper currency of the coun- 
try was at that time almost worthless ; silver 
coins were scarce, and farm products, such as 
grain, wool, flax, and meats, were their only 
equivalents in trade and barter. The ten 
paper dollars paid to the treasurer in 1780 
were not worth more than the "sex she- 
langs " of peaceful times, which, by the prov- 
ince laws of 1749, had been made equal to 
a Spanish milled dollar. 

In addition to the clerk and the treasurer, 
the town's officers annually chosen were 
numerous. Some of them were authorized 
by legislative enactments and some by custom 
only. There were men "to make up ac- 
counts " with the treasurer ; others to per- 
ambulate the boundaries; one "able man," 
called in the records the " Clark of the 
markit," to affix the town's seal to all weights 
and measures found to be true according to 
the standards sent out of England in the 
reign of William and Mary, and to destroy 



88 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

the false. To enable this officer to do his 
duty fairly, the town bought a London set of 
"wates and mesuers," as the clerk wrote it, 
at a cost of ten pounds. 

Good orthodox leather was considered to 
be a prime necessity, like orthodox preaching, 
and therefore men were chosen, who by au- 
thority of law stamped the town's mark upon 
all leather well and sufficiently tanned or 
curried ; and who seized all unstamped and 
defective leather offered for sale, whether it 
had been worked up or not. And as no man 
was allowed to make his own theology, so 
none was allowed to make his own leather, 
unless he was skilled in what the law styled 
" the feat or mystery of a tanner ; " and if so 
skilled he was prohibited from exercising any 
other trade. 

There were fence-viewers chosen to adjust 
controversies between the owners of adjoin- 
ing lands. There were inspectors of high- 
ways and bridges. There were inspectors of 
rivers, who were sworn to secure to shad and 
alewives a free passage up and down the 
town's streams. Once a year they came be- 
fore His Majesty's justice of the peace and 
took an oath to look after the welfare of the 
fish, who recorded the fact as follows : — ■ 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 89 

" March the 22 day 1756 Insign Swift and Eb- 
enezer Brigs hath taken ye oatli Taking Care of 
the Ale wives not Being Stoped from going up the 
Revers to cast their Sporns before me John Fear- 
ing." 

There were hog-reeves, to see that when 
hogs went abroad they wore rings in their 
noses, and yokes of the regulation size on 
their necks. The law called them meet per- 
sons ; they were unpopular, as they made 
fees by using their authority to seize swine 
found without a keeper, a yoke, a tethering 
line, or snout rings, "so as to prevent damage 
by rooting." Benjamin Smith, of Taunton, 
sent a petition to the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, in December, 1722 : "Shewing That 
being the Hog Reve of the said Town He 
suffered much in the Execution of that Office, 
And Praying that this Court would determine 
Whether his Oath is not a good & lawful 
Evidence Though he be Hog Reve." When, 
in later times, as swine became less numer- 
ous, the office became a sinecure, the popular 
candidate for it was usually the last bride- 
groom in the town. 

Two tything-men, called in the vernacular 
" tidymen," were chosen from those who 



go COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

were supposed to be prudent and discreet. 
Every incumbent of this office had need of 
prudence and discretion, for, although he no 
longer, as in earlier times, took "the charge 
of ten or twelve Familyes of his Neibour- 
hood"to "diligently inspect them," he was 
required to watch licensed houses of enter- 
tainment, and to make complaint of all dis- 
orders and misdemeanors discovered therein. 
As he reported to His Majesty's justice of 
the peace all idle persons, " prophane swear- 
ers or cursers Sabath breakers and the like 
offenders," his presence in the tavern, the 
shop, or the store, was a signal for silence 
and sobriety. 

Because, said a province law, " bundles of 
shingles are mark'd for a greater number 
than what they contain," two skillful men 
were chosen to see that neighbors did not 
cheat each other in trading for lumber. Then, 
there was a town ganger, appointed to gauge 
and mark all casks of rum and molasses ex- 
posed for sale. The necessity for this officer 
grew out of the "total depravity" of His 
Majesty's good subjects, in whose casks and 
hogsheads, said the law of 171 8, "there hath 
been wanting seven or eight gallons and 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 9 1 

sometimes more which persons are obliged to 
pay for." 

As military service was compulsory upon 
men between sixteen and sixty years of age, 
the town had its militia company and mem- 
bers of the county horse troop ; and a military 
clerk, who four times a year listed all persons 
required by law to bear arms and attend 
musters. He collected fines from those who 
failed to answer the roll-calls on training 
days. Those who did not pay the fines were 
punished by being made to lie neck and heels 
together, or to ride the wooden horse. 

Other officers of the town were a cattle- 
pound keeper, who lived by fees ; a sheep- 
yarder, who yarded stray sheep, " if they be 
not badgd,"from December to March, at two- 
pence a head and expenses of keeping; a 
man " to Tack care of the meeting House and 
Sweep the Saim," and " to keep the dores & 
windows shet." Wardens were chosen, " to 
Inspect ye meeting Hous on ye Lord's Day 
and see to Good Order among ye Boys ; " for 
it was customary to separate children from 
their parents, to place them together in un- 
comfortable seats, and to set inspectors over 
them. If they were discovered laughing or 



92 COLONIAL TliMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

playing during the time of public worship, 
the wardens complained of them to His Ma- 
jesty's justice of the peace, who inflicted 
punishment according to law. Gamekeepers 
were annually chosen, whose duty was to 
prevent the untimely killing of deer, or hunt- 
ing them when they were imprisoned in 
corries by deep snows. The town clerk said 
in his records that they are "To Bee the men 
for Prevesation of the Deare for the yeare 
Insuing." 

The office of constable was of high reputa- 
tion, and, as in old Saxon times, so now, it 
was intended that only those should have it 
who were " honest and able men both in body 
and estate and not of the meaner sort." 
Every constable, said a Plymouth Colony law, 
"shall have a Black Staffe tip't with Brasse 
as a Badge of his office which as he hath op- 
portunity he shall take with him when he 
goeth to discharge any part of his office." He 
was therefore popularly known by the irrev- 
erent as tipstaff. He gathered the taxes al- 
lotted for general expenses of the town, and 
those allotted for support of the minister. 
The warrant for town meeting was addressed 
to him by the selectmen. It ran : " In his 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 93 

Majesties name to Require you to notifie the 
Freeholders and other inhabitants QualHfied 
as the Law Directs to vote in Town Meeting 
that they meet and assemble themselves to- 
gether at the meeting House to know the 
Town's Mind " in regard to the various ques- 
tions stated in the warrant. This document 
was copied in the town book to establish the 
authenticity of the meeting ; and the consta- 
ble therein certified that he had notified the 
inhabitants " by setting up the warrant at the 
meeting House," by which he meant that he 
had nailed it upon the principal door of that 
building, where everybody could read it on 
Sunday. 

No one sought the office of constable, but 
whoever was elected was required to accept 
it, or to pay the fine fixed by law for refusing 
to take the oath. In 1751 a town meeting 
was adjourned six times to elect men who 
would consent to take the constable's oath of 
office, and David Besse was chosen to prose- 
cute "delinquent constables " on behalf of the 
town. It was necessary for the Town's Mind 
to be lenient in dealing with this antipathy to 
the office; therefore the fine imposed upon 
Benjamin Fearing "for being delinquent in 



94 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

the office of constable " was remitted on con- 
dition that he procured a substitute. In 1752 
Butler Wing, being elected constable, refused 
to serve ; whereupon he was prosecuted, and 
he gave his promissory note for the amount 
of the fine. He appealed repeatedly to be 
excused from the debt ; but the Town's Mind 
was unmoved, and in 1755 it directed the 
clerk to enter upon the book its decision, that 
it would "not a Bate mr Butler Wing any 
Part of the money that he gave a note for for 
his Refusing to Sarve in the office of Consta- 
ble when chosen by the Town in ye year 
1752." The sequel of this matter is found in 
the town treasurer's records of 1756, viz. : "I 
have Reseved a fine paid by Butler Wing for 
not Sarving Constable in the Town of Ware- 
ham 2 pounds 14 ShilUngs." 

Of all the town officers the selectmen were 
chief. There were three of them chosen 
annually to direct prudential affairs, holding 
sessions at the tavern, where they usually sat 
the day out, having the town clerk at hand to 
record their orders, served with victuals and 
grog at the town's cost, and regarded by their 
host with a respect due to servants of the 
King. They prepared business for the town 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 95 

meetings and nominated town officers for 
election. They looked up undesirable resi- 
dents and were active (to quote the records 
of 1767) in " worning Pepel oot of Town." In 
1768 they sent Jeams Baker out of town at a 
cost of fifteen shillings; Nathan Bump was 
exported at a cost of six shillings ; eight shil- 
lings were paid for carrying away "a black 
child ; " and Elisha Burgess received twenty 
shillings for carting out a whole family. 
Rams were in higher favor than these friend- 
less sojourners. They had the freedom of the 
town until 1781, when it was ordered that 
they "shall be taken in" by the ist of Sep- 
tember. But as they continued to stand at 
the street corners, the Town's Mind rose in 
anger, and declared that " if a Ram goes at 
large the owner shall pay a dollar to him that 
takes up said Ram." 

The selectmen offered to the town meeting 
a variety of subjects for consideration. Some 
related to the extermination of foxes, crows, 
and other farm pests ; to the protection of 
oyster fishing; to the catching and selling of 
alewives ; to the acceptance of highways and 
the building of bridges ; to repairs of the 
meeting-house; to the minister's salary and 



96 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

the ministry lands ; to the herding of sheep 
and yoking of hogs on the commons ; to such 
questions as " what amount of money is to be 
raised for defraying necessary expenses ; " 
whether the town "will have a school this 
year;" or will choose a representative at the 
Great and General Court appointed to be con- 
vened for His Majesty's service in Boston; 
or will make new irons for the town stocks ; 
or a new whipping-post. Some measures dis- 
cussed were medical, as " not to have Small 
Pox set up by Inoculation ; " some were con- 
vivial, as "To pay Joshua Gibbs for two bowls 
of Grog " drunk while on the town's service ; 
some were pathetic, as "voted for makeing a 
Coffen for Alice Reed ten shillings — for her 
Winding Sheat three and four pence — for 
digging her grave three shillings ; " to pay 
"the Wido Debre Savery for Fethers she Put 
in Jemima Wing's bed when Sick Six Shil- 
lings ; " to pay " Six Shillings to Sam^ Savery 
for his Trouble and care of John Pennerine." 
This last-named beneficiary was one of a 
large number of poor, ignorant, and super- 
stitious peasants, prisoners from Acadia, kin 
of Evangeline and Gabriel Lajeunesse, who 
were billeted upon the towns of Massachu- 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 97 

setts by orders of the royal Governor and 
Council, like the following, dated 1757 : "To 
remove John Pelerine Wife and Children, 
supposed to be Five in Number a Family 
of French Neutrals to the Town of Ware- 
ham, and that the Select Men of the Town 
of Wareham be and hereby are directed to 
receive them and provide for them." 

Alice Reed, whose cofhn, winding-sheet, 
and grave thus cost the town sixteen shillings 
and four pence, had been one of the town's 
poor, annually put out by the selectmen to be 
kept at public expense. How to dispose of 
such people was a subject which periodically < 
exercised the Town's Mind, and it was doubt- 
less a consolation to know that some of the 
oaths and curses uttered in public had been 
turned by His Majesty's justice of the peace 
into shillings for their benefit, as the law di- 
rected. They began to call for support in 
1746, when the town paid £,\2 for keeping 
"Jane Bump so called with victuals and 
cloaths." The next year she was returned to 
the selectmen, who, not knowing what to do 
with her, pressed the town " to do Sumthing 
for ye Support of Geen Bump." In 1754 
appeared the widow Reliance Bumpus, who 



98 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA V. 

placed her whole reliance upon the town 
treasury for twenty years. A short time be- 
fore she had enjoyed a merited credit with 
her neighbors, in regard to which the old ac- 
count-book testifies as follows : " November 
ye 24 1 75 1 ye widow Reliance bumpus Dr 
for 16 pounds of porck i bushall of corn and 
I gallon of malases and i pound of Ches " — 
"July 1752 Reconed with Relyanc bumpus 
and all accounts balanced." Her widowhood 
was soon followed by poverty, and then she 
turned to the selectmen for help. John 
Bishop, the town clerk, says : — 

" When the votable inhabitance convened in 
His Majesties name September 24, 1754 John 
Bumpus ye 3d Came Into ye meeting and maid 
the offer ye town that he would Keep ye widow 
Reliance Bumpus one year Kuming for six Pounds 
Thirteen Shillings and four Pence Lawfull money 
and ye Mordarator Put it to vote to know ye Mind 
of ye town whether they ware willing to allow ye 
sd Jno Bumpus ye 3d the money he asked to keep 
ye aforesd widow one year and ye vote Past in the 
Affarmative." 

Thus the poor widows Bump and Bumpus, 
descendants of Edward Bompasse, who came 
to Plymouth in the little ship "Fortune" from 



THE TOWN'S MIND. 99 

London in 162 1, secured a place in recorded 
history. Many poor widows achieved the 
same distinction, and became their compan- 
ions at the public crib, A warrant for a 
town meeting in 1757 stated a wish "To 
know the Towns Mind whether they will do 
anything for the Support of Sarah Chubbuck 
it being the Desire of her Brother Benjamin " 
— a request which suggests that family pride 
in this respect was not a virtue universally 
appreciated. In the same year others joined 
the poor widows' band, among whom was 
Jane George, who became famous inasmuch 
as she participated in its joys and sorrows 
for fifty years. 

The prices at which the poor widows were 
farmed out varied annually, but in 1770 their 
value was uniform at ;^3 each per annum, 
taken as they ran. Their keeping was so 
profitable, in services rendered by them, as 
to induce the town to vote repeatedly " Not 
to build a poor-house," and a convenient plan 
for disposing of them was adopted : it was to 
sell them at auction. At a town meeting in 
1776 it was voted, "to vandue the Widow 
Lovell." She was accordingly set up by the 
selectmen, and, as the records state, " was 

LtfC 



lOO COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

Struck of to Josiah Stevens for to keep 
one year for the Sum of nine pounds Six 
shillings & if She did not live the year in he 
to have in that proportion." But she lived 
" the year in," and continued to appear at the 
annual auction. In 1782 the town voted to 
buy her a shirt, and then sold her again. 
After transfers to various homes, her death is 
disclosed in this record of September, 1784: 
" Voted for a winding sheet and a shift for 
the Widow Lovell eight shillings." And that 
was the end of her. But Jane George lived 
on, and into the next century, surviving all 
her numerous contemporaries. She began to 
be one of the town's poor in 1757 ; she was 
set up at vendue for the last time in 1808, 
when, before she passed from the public 
stage, dilapidated as she undoubtedly was, 
the town voted to pay " for Extra Mending 
Jane George four dollars." 

Not every one who came to town meeting 
was allowed to vote there. The laws of 
1692 described qualified voters as owners of 
real estate in fee simple, and " inhabitants 
who are ratable at twenty pounds estate." 
In 1743 the laws compelled voters to be per- 
sonally present at the meeting, and all could 



THE TOWN'S MIND. lOI 

vote on town matters who had a ratable 
estate of ;^20 value in the town ; but at the 
election of a representative to the Great and 
General Court at Boston, only those could 
vote who owned a landed estate yielding an 
annual income of forty shillings " at the 
least." This qualification was fixed by the 
charter of William and Mary, and it is wor- 
thy of note that the same ruled in the town 
of Kingston-upon-Hull, incorporated in the 
year 1439 by Henry VI, "To remedy the 
great evils arising from the elections being 
made by outrageous and excessive numbers 
of people dwelling in the counties, most part 
of small substance, pretending to have a 
voice equivalent to the most worthy knights 
and esquires," 

The colonial town meeting was a primary 
and not a representative assembly ; the law 
declared that " no matter or thing shall be 
voted or determined but what is inserted in 
the warrant " for calling it. As it recognized 
no distinction of persons, disorders were fre- 
quent. A law of 1 71 5 gave special powers 
to the moderator because, as the law said, 
" by reason of the disorderly carriage of 
some persons in said meetings the business 



I02 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

thereof is very much retarded and ob- 
structed." And it was sometimes necessary, 
when -weighty matters were to be consid- 
ered, to make a registry of the names of 
those who had a title to vote ; as in Septem- 
ber, 1774, when the Boston Port Bill was in 
force, the town of Wareham chose a commit- 
tee " to join with the selectmen to make out 
a list and say who should vote in town meet- 
ing." 

In many respects the colonial town meet- 
ing — always held in the meeting-house — 
resembled the parish meeting of Old Eng- 
land, always held in the nave of the church. 
The selectmen, as trustees of the town, ad- 
ministered its income and rendered an ac- 
count of receipts and expenses to the annual 
town meeting ; so the churchwardens, as 
trustees of the parish, rendered their ac- 
count of receipts and expenses to the annual 
meeting of parishioners ; and in each place 
discussions ensued on any important mea- 
sures done or proposed by the trustees. 
The accounts of the " Chyrchewardens of 
North Elmham," from the year 1539 ^^ ^^^ 
year 1577, show payments of money, for the 
welfare of the town, identical in character 



THE TOWN'S MIND. IO3 

with payments made two hundred years later 
by the selectmen of Wareham. When a 
bridge was to be built the churchwardens 
hired a woodcutter to fell an oak-tree in the 
park, then a sawyer to saw the oak into tim- 
bers, then a digger to dig a pit under the 
felled oak, for the run of the saw. All this 
is told in the Chyrchwarden's accounts : — 

— " A. D. 1545 payed to Roger Hamonde 
for felling of an coke in y^ peke for y^ 
mendying of y^ brydge by Rudds . . 3d. 

payed to Robert Barchham for y^ sawying 
of y^ Tree wherewith was made y^ 
brydge by Rudds 7s. 8d. 

payed for ye makying of a pytt to saw y^ 

seyd tree 4d." 

The churchwardens paid, as did the Ware- 
ham selectmen, for making a " payer of 
towne stocks ; " for carting gravel to mend 
" y^ noysome wayes within y^ town ; " for 
** foxes heades according to ye statute and 
polecattes and a wild cattes hed.' In the 
year 1546 they paid for "makying of y® 
Chyrche door keye & mending of y® locke ; " 
and likewise, in the year 1748, did the select- 
men of Wareham pay " for a lock and kee 
for ye meeting hous." 









a; 




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1 v^^i 


^H 




f 


3^:i--^_ 




^^i 



VII. 



IMPRESSMENTS FOR THE KING. 




ESS than two years had passed, after 
the organization of the town, when 
warrants to impress men into the 
King's miHtary and naval service were re- 
ceived by the captain of the town's militia 
company. Impressment was not a new 
thing. A line written on the inside of the 
cover of Israel Fearing's book reads : " May 
the 26 in 1707 I was preesed to the easel for 
6 mounth ; " referring to his impressment 
into Queen Anne's military service at " her 
majesty's Castle William " on Castle Island 
in Boston harbor ; which fortification was at 
that time garrisoned by " impressing men's 
sons and servants every spring." 

Impressment was a grievance, and yet 
there was a plenty of law for it. Although 
it had not been directly authorized by act 
of Parliament, it was recognized as lawful in- 



IMPRESSMENTS FOR THE KING. 105 

asmuch as there were acts which made pro- 
vision for the exemption of certain persons 
from impressment to which they would other- 
wise have been subject. Moreover the earU- 
est laws of Massachusetts provided for " Im- 
presses " of laborers, cattle, goods, soldiers, 
and sailors ; and the way to do it was de- 
scribed by the Great and General Court from 
time to time during the entire period of co- 
lonial legislation. The laws authorized im- 
pressments of laborers and artificers for 
public works ; of goods and cattle for public 
service ; of sailors and soldiers from the 
militia for wars conducted by act of the co- 
lonial legislature. They exempted from im- 
pressments men who were suffering from 
"any natural or personal impediment, as 
want of years, greatness of years, defect of 
minde, failing of senses, or impotency of 
limbs." Members of the Provincial Council, 
representatives at the Great and General 
Court and judges of assize, while in office, 
were allowed by the law of 1704 to "enjoy 
the priviledge of having one son or servant 
exempted and freed from all impresses." 

Each person liable to impressment was 
required to appear himself or by a substitute 



I06 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

at the time and place appointed, on pain of 
suffering imprisonment, unless he paid down 
within two hours the fine fixed by law. 
Those who paid the fine or who procured 
substitutes were to be " esteemed as persons 
that have served." Soldiers were impressed 
for the Indian wars as well as for wars in the 
succeeding century ; and extraordinary favors 
were sometimes expected by those who re- 
turned home after having served their King 
in this compulsory manner.^ 

There was of course a natural desire to 
escape impressments, and it was favored by 
physicians' certificates of inability to serve, 
which were easily obtained. These means, 
employed " by divers persons fit and able for 
service," were described by the legislature as 
"corrupt and fallacious " certificates written 
by "some practitioners in chirurgery." Many 
who failed to get the fallacious certificates 
ran away. The laws, having recited the fact 
that " the ablest and fittest for service have 
absconded and hid themselves from the im- 

1 Sept. 6, 1746, Barnabas Bates and Ebenezer Perry, Jr., 
asked, in town meeting, to be excused " from paying Rates 
the Ensuing year by Reason of their being on the Expedi- 
tion at Cape Britton the Last year." — IVarcham Records. 



IMPRESSMENTS FOR THE KING. lO/ 

press," gave authority to public officers to 
pursue the fugitives, and to levy a tax of five 
pounds upon their " body goods or chattels." 
As Massachusetts by the charter of Wil- 
liam and Mary had power to enact such laws 
only as were " not repugnant or contrary to 
the Lawes of this our Realme of England," 
it is to be presumed that all impressment 
laws of the province were of this character. 
But they were often executed in a despotic 
manner. In 1757 the Provincial Council 
directed the sheriff of Suffolk County *'to 
Impress Thirty Seamen for Manning the 
Snow Prince of Wales as soon as may be ; " 
and in 1759 the General Court authorized 
the captain general " to impress out of the 
inward bound Vessels so many Seamen as 
to make up the Compliment of Men to com- 
pleat the number allowed to man the Ship 
King George." The inhabitants of Boston 
frequently protested against the " oppressive 
manner before unknown to Englishmen and 
attended with tragical consequences," in 
which impressment warrants were executed. 
It could be said of the officers of the law 
that, like Falstaff, they "misused the King's 
press most damnably," thereby causing riots. 



I08 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

and compelling the govern-or to promise that 
impressments should be stopped. 

There was reason for the farmers of Ware- 
ham to be alarmed when the King's ship (or 
snow) came up Buzzard's Bay in 1741, and 
again in 1742, and sent warrants to the cap- 
tain of the militia to impress men into the 
King's service. Although some took to the 
woods, none offered resistance. In Israel 
Fearing's book are written the names of his 
townsmen who were impressed at various 
times between the years 1740 and 1748, to 
assist in carrying on the wars of England 
against France and Spain : — 

"April, 1740 Robert Bese impresed and Na- 
than Brigg's man ; and Nathan Briggs gave 
Robert Bese fifteen pounds old tener for half a 
man and Robert Bese went to the Estward. 

"May 1741 Josiah Cunit Impresed to goon 
bord ye snow And he Recived ten pounds in 
mony. 

'* And Edward Bump paid him 5 pounds for his 
sons. 

" And John bump y^ 3 two pounds. 

" And After hadawa two pounds for his sun. 

" And Joseph doty one pound for his sun. 

" March 1742 Joshua bese Impresed to go on 



IMPRESSMENTS FOR THE KING. IO9 

bord y^ sno and Joseph Landers paid 4 pounds 
for his son to him. 

" March 1743 Noah bump Imprest for his 
magests sarvis and Runaway. 

"June 1744 Jonathan bump Jun'' Impresed 
and Samuel peary for his magist sarvis and they 
both went to the Est frontters. 

"March 1745 Oliver Nores impresed and Run 
away and Joseph doty Jun and Run away Ed- 
ward bump impresed and Joshua bump. And 
barnabas bates and these 3 went in his magest 
sarvis to cap britan. 

"June 1745. Ebenezer peary Jun and Jona- 
than bump Junr Listed for cap britten and I gave 
them fouer pounds apeace old tener. 

" Jabez bensen was Impresed and went to y® 
Estward. 

" Joshua Gibbes Jun Impresed and paul Ra- 
ment and paul Rament Recived twenty pouns old 
tener and If Either of these are Impresed the 
other is to Apear and go Into his magestys sar- 
vis or Else to give 20 pounds old tener. 

"July 1746 biniamin Chubback Impresed and 
gave Noah bump twenty pounds old ten to goo 
half for him. 

" Samuel peary and Noah bump impresed to 
go to the Westward frunttery and Samuel peary 
Received 40 pounds old ten 20 pounds of John 
bushap for his sonn and ten pounds of Jorg 
Whit and ten pounds of Joh gibbes 



1 10 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA V. 

" Sepr 1746 Jonathan Chubback Jun Impresed 
for Zeccues Bump At five pounds old ten Joseph 
Giford Jun presed at five pounds and ten shillings 
old tener for Edward bump to goo in his magty 
sarves. 

"March 1748 Judah Swift and Joseph doty 
and Edward Rayment Imprest and hired Robart 
bese for 55 pounds." 

The record shows that these men were 
equipped for the service on which they were 
going with muskets, halberds, drums, and the 
royal ensign ; and that opportunity was given 
them to buy substitutes, to obtain compensa- 
tion, and even to run away. 




VIII. 

THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. 




fT Stood on the common where the 
flagstaff now stands, a plain square 
building, stained silver-gray by the 
sun and rains. On its front side there was a 
porch, on top of its front gable there was a 
little turret, and over the turret, on a stumpy 
rod, whirled a whale-shaped wind-vane. The 
turret and the vane gave to the building an 
air of humble respectability. Around it were 
a few oak-trees, outposts of the primeval 
forest which extended behind it to the shore 
of the bay, a mile distant. In front was the 
principal highway of the region, called by the 
earliest settlers "ye contry rode." It was 
along this way that Englishmen of Plymouth 
drove their cattle to the Mattapoiset necks to 
be wintered, as long ago as the year 1655, and 
over the same path English soldiers traveled 
in 1676 to attack the Indian King Philip. A 



1 1 2 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

way branched from it to some meadows and 
houses on Cromeset Neck ; where three chim- 
ney stacks may yet be seen, in the woods, the 
only relics of those seaside homes of the 
parish. The Woonkinco River was so near 
the meeting-house that the hum of its grist- 
mill could have been heard above the voice of 
the preacher in the pulpit, if the miller had 
been allowed to run his grindstones on Sun- 
day. Beyond the river was that stretch of 
verdant meadows which had given the name 
of Fresh-meadow Village to the small settle- 
ment in the neighborhood. 

The Agawame planters began to build the 
meeting-house in the year 1735. It was a 
private undertaking by a few farmers, who got 
their sustenance from the soil and from the 
sea, their clothing from sheep's wool carded 
and spun at home, and who, for trade, made 
tar and gathered turpentine in the pine 
forests. As times were hard, because the 
current paper-money of the province was 
almost valueless, the undertaking dragged 
heavily on their hands. Four years later 
they were glad to turn it over to their new- 
made town, which immediately levied a tax 
upon them wherewith to finish it. In the 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. 1 13 

records the tax was called " the meeting hous 
Rat." Some paid the "Rat" with labor, 
some paid it with lumber, some with nails 
wrought in the home smithies, some with 
farm products which were exchanged for 
labor ; for example, Uriah Savery gave " y^ 
pounds of beef toward building ye meeting 
hous at 6 pence a pound." 

As soon as it was habitable for public wor- 
ship the town appointed agents " to sell ye 
Spots for Pues," and chose two serious men 
to police the Sunday services. It was the 
duty of these men to watch all playful boys 
and girls, especially boys, whom the elders of 
Duxbury had publicly stigmatized as " the 
wretched boys on the Lord's day." By com- 
mon opinion they were regarded as an annoy- 
ance to the minister and an offense to the 
gravity of the town. 

It was a small meeting-house, but it had 
more than one door, as appears from the elec- 
tion of a man to sweep it " and unlock the 
Doores." It was customary in those times 
not only to separate men from women and 
boys from girls in seating the congregation, 
but to provide separate doors for them ; there- 
fore the little house had a great door for men 



114 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

on its front, and two small doors on opposite 
sides, of which one was for women and the 
other was probably for symmetry. 

The sweeping and the locking it were sub- 
jects which exercised the Town's Mind annu- 
ally; and although the doorkeeper's emolu- 
ment had been twenty-five shillings old tenor 
a year, which was equivalent to nearly two 
dollars in silver, the town was willing to pay 
more for a better service. It is recorded that, 
at a town meeting in 1747, "Ye modarater 
Pute to vote whether the town would Give 
Sam^ Savery forty Shillings old teener to 
Sweep and keep the kee of the meeting hous 
ye Insuing year and It Past In in the affearm- 
itive and ye sd Sam" accepted." 

But in 1748 the said Samuel was no longer 
the town's doorkeeper. The compensation 
was increased to sixty shillings, and Ichabod 
Samson was chosen for the service. Instead 
of keeping the key he lost it, compelling the 
selectmen to put into the tax levy seven 
shillings and sixpence " for a Lock and kee 
for ye meeting hous." Notwithstanding this 
loss Ichabod continued in charge ; but in 
1754 his meagre salary was cut down. There 
was some reason for the cutting : the Great 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. I15 

and General Court at Boston had established 
a silver currency, and shillings were worth 
more than they had been. Besides, he had 
begun to show that carelessness in the dis- 
charge of his duties which a long tenure of 
office is apt to beget. He had neglected to 
use his broom, and had fallen into the habit 
of locking people in the meeting-house on 
Sundays, or of locking them out of it ; for a 
town meeting gave him positive orders " To 
open ye dores & shutt them when wanted," 
and it directed hirn to sweep the house once 
a month, the general expectation being that 
he was to sweep it " so often as there shalbe 
ocation to keep it deesent." 

It needed a great deal of sweeping. There 
were days when the doors were swinging 
open, inviting all wandering sheep, dogs, and 
boys to explore it. Children played in it on 
Sunday noons, if the warden was out of sight, 
thereby "Prophanning the Sabbath in the 
Intermission Season," as the elders said ; 
while the latter ate luncheons there, smoked 
tobacco, and scattered trash upon the floor 
without " prophanning " the place at all. It 
was used for town meetings and for elections, 
at which times boys climbed into the pulpit 



1 1 6 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA V. 

and imagined themselves to be ministers. In 
its loft were stored the town's drum, halberds, 
muskets, ammunition, and the British colors 
which had been carried in the French and 
Indian wars, and were always flaunted through 
the town by the train-band on training days.^ 
Notwithstanding these uses of the meeting- 
house, the people had some regard for it. 
When the adjacent common became a dump- 
ing ground for superfluous stones and a 
market-place for firewood, they ordered that 
no stones shall be dumped nor wood piled in 
front of it. When the rains leaked into it, 

1 It is worth while to note the vulgar uses to which 
churches (or meeting-houses) were sometimes put in Eng- 
land in the 17th century, as showing that the careless- 
ness and disrespect in which these edifices were held by 
New England colonists were inherited from Old England. 
In Bedford, as related in Brown's Li/t^ aud Times of John 
Biinyan, a man got into trouble for "folding some sheep in 
the church during a snow storm ; " a woman for " hanginge 
her lynnen in the church to dry." The curate of the parish 
was presented in 161 2 for baiting a bear in the church at 
Woburn ; the church wardens of Knotting and their sons 
and the rector, because they " permitted and were present 
at cock fightings in the chancel! ; " and the rector of Carlton, 
because " immediately before service he did lead his horse 
in at the south doore into the chancell of the church where 
he sett him and there continued all the time of said service 
and sermon." 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. W] 

they voted to put " some scattering shinggles 
on the roof." Once they bought a pulpit 
"cushing." In 1764 they altered "the front 
Gallery so the men has the whole of it to Set 
in;" and in 1767 they appropriated four 
pounds, equivalent to thirteen dollars and 
thirty-three cents, "for Doing ye meeting 
hous and for a Suppolidge," — whatever that 
strange thing may have been. Moreover, His 
Majesty's justice of the peace, a rugged 
farmer whose loyalty to the King was bred 
in his bones, fined all boys and girls who 
laughed in it during the time of worship. 
This worthy opened his court records in 1755 
with these writings : — 

" Deborah Bergs hath paid me as a fine for Lafing 
in the VVareham meeting house on the Sabarth 
day In the time of Publick Devine Sarvice By the 
hand of Ebnezer Brigs 5 ShilUngs " 

" Hanah Elis hath paid me as a fine for Breach of 
Sabath for Lafing in the meeting house on the 
Lords Day In the time of Devine Sarvice By the 
hand of Rholand Benson 5 Shillings " 

Everybody in the town, whether living near 
the meeting-house or far from it, went to the 
Sunday services. A celebrated petition to 



I 1 8 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA V. 

the King, in 1731, from the rector of the 
Church of England in Boston, " most humbly 
informs your Majesty that it is very common 
for the people in New England to go ten or 
fifteen miles to Church." This custom filled 
the seats of the Wareham meeting-house so 
full that some worshipers must bring chairs, 
which they placed wherever there was an 
open space on the floor. The chairs became 
an annoyance to the pew-owners, the aristoc- 
racy of the place, who in 1757 got an order 
from the town " to clear the Alleys of the 
meeting Hous of chairs and all other Incum- 
brances." Whether the ousted worshipers 
stood during the services thereafter, or seated 
themselves on doorsteps and window sills, the 
records say not. 

Religion filled a large space in the thoughts 
and in the laws of the province.^ The laws 

1 A prolonged observance of the Sabbath continued to be 
the custom in New England until the influence of railroads 
broke it up. 

" I remember being despatched when a lad oue Saturday afternoon in 
the winter, to bring home a few bushels of apples engaged o£ a farmer a 
mile distant ; how the careful exact man looked first at the clock, then 
out of the window at the sun, and turning to me said : ' I cannot measure 
out the apples in time for you to get home before sundown ; you must 
come again Monday.'" — Rev. Horace BusJuiell, at Litchfield, Conn., 
in 1S51. 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. II9 

directed that the Sabbath time shall begin at 
the going-down of Saturday's sun and shall 
continue through the evening of Sunday. On 
Saturday evening the usual labors of the 
household were suspended, and when Sunday 
dawned preparations were made to go to the 
meeting-house. Then traveling and walking 
afield were forbidden. To travel was not to 
pass from one town to another only ; it was 
also passing from house to house in the vil- 
lage. His Majesty's justice of the peace was 
within the instructions of the law when he 
wrote in his book : — 

" May th 10 Day 1769 then Parsonly appeared 
Japhath washburn and acknowledged himself Gilty 
of a Breach of Sabbath In traveling From my 
hous onto Zaphanier Bumps on the 16 Day of 
april on a arond To Git Benjamin Benson to 
worck for him and he hath paid Ten Shillings as 
a Fine To me John Fearing Justis of peace " 

Nor can the hay be winrowed on Sunday, 
nor may children pick apples in the orchards. 
The same justice wrote in his book : — 

" September th 5 Day 1772 personly appeared 
William Estes and acknowledged him Self Gilty of 
Racking hay on The First Day of the week or 
Lords Day and paid Fine Ten Shillings to me " 



I20 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

"July th 27 1774 then Elizabeth Mosse paid Five 
Shillings For her son Job for a breach of Sabath 
for puling aples in Benjamin Fearing's orchard 
complained of by Ebenezer Swift warden to me " 

Religion was also the romance of the 
people. The humor and pathos of Banyan's 
story depicting the progress of his pilgrims 
from this world to that which is to come 
touched all hearts. It was the delight of 
their imagination, in the Sunday twilights, to 
follow Christian and Hopeful while they 
crossed the Inchanted Ground, and, entering 
the Land of Beulah, " whose air was very- 
sweet and pleasant," journeyed on to the 
Celestial City ; for many believed that they 
were going thither by the same way. 

To such a people, going to the meeting- 
house for divine worship was a duty ; to be 
there was a social pleasure by which the duty 
was enforced. The intermission between the 
forenoon and the afternoon service furnished 
opportunity for greetings to those who, living 
on almost impassable roads, had not seen each 
other during the preceding six days. Many 
things were to be talked about, some of which 
were suggested by announcements tacked 
upon the great door of the meeting-house. 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. 121 

There they read, as from an old newspaper, 
of an intention of marriage between persons 
known to everybody ; and although the town- 
clerk had stood up in the congregation and 
screamed it at the top of his voice, it was an 
endless subject for comment, especially if the 
woman had as publicly renounced the inten- 
tion — as women sometimes did. There they 
read of a sale at outcry to come off during 
the week, and the wise ones were asked to 
foretell how much the property would fetch, 
and to explain why it was to be sold. They 
read of stray cattle lost or found, of a trinket 
picked up on the highway, of the last bounty 
offered for a fox's head, of taxes due, of a 
whaling sloop about to sail and would take a 
green hand, of a townsman going to Boston, 
of the next town meeting, and they threshed 
out the questions there to be voted upon. 
These Sunday noon gatherings, which were 
not unlike the meetings of a village club, 
supphed not only news and gossip, but also 
opportunities for a trade or a barter not to be 
neglected. 

Thus the Sundays came and went for 
thirty years, when it appeared that the large 
congregation must have a larger meeting- 



I 22 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

house ; and the town having refused to build 
it, preferring to patch out the old one, a few 
townsmen undertook the building. Although 
there had been migrations to Connecticut 
during these years, the town had retained 
the natural increase of its population, save 
what part death and the King's impress had 
carried away. There were more farms, more 
sheep and neat cattle, more sloops going to 
sea, and a more general prosperity than 
there had been. A forge had been set up in 
the woods to work iron ore dug from bogs 
and ponds ; the schoolmaster had become a 
part of the community ; and the political 
strifes in Boston had hardly been heard of. 

The new meeting-house was set up " Nigh 
where the old meeting-house now stands," 
as the location of the land given for it is 
described in the conveyance, dated "March 
1 6th in the tenth year of his Majesties 
reign annoque Domini 1770." No barrels 
of rum were tapped at its raising, because it 
was a private undertaking, to be done without 
waste. The farmers who built it followed the 
architectural style of the old house ; they 
knew no other style, and used a part of the 
old materials in the new building. They 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. 1 23 

were to repay themselves for their expenses 
from the sales of pews, the deeds of which 
ran in very unscholastic language, showing 
how destitute of a school education these 
town fathers had been when they were boys.^ 
Near the new meeting-house was Benjamin 
Fearing's inn, which in the early part of the 
century had been the dwelling-house of Isaac 
Bumpus, the miller. He had been a prom- 

^ " We the Subscribers Major part of the Commity Chosen 
by Subscribers of the New Meeting hous in Wareham to 
build for them said Meeting hous agreabell to thear articales 
Subscribed to and to give to them a Tittle of thear pew or 
pevves theay shall Drow by Lott and it appearing to ous 
that John Fearing Esquire of Wareham haith Subscribed 
and paid to ous the following Sumes to Wit the Sum of Six- 
teen poundes and the Sum of Six pounds Eleven shillings 
and Six pence for the Building said Meeting hous and a 
further Sum of four poundes Eight shillings for a pew he 

Boght of ous at publick Veandew ■ — ■ 

We Do In ower Capacety Intitle to him the said John 
Fearing Esq', of Wareham the following pewes which he 
Drew by Lott and Chose and that he Boght beeing Num- 
bered ass foloweth to wit one N°. 31 another N°. 54 and the 
other N°. 43 To him the said John Fearing Esquire his 
heirs and assigns soo Long as Shall be thought proper by 
the said proprity of Wareham to Continue said Meet Hous 

Wareham June Barnabas Bates "1 

T-i „ -n • I Commity of 

ye 4: 1774. Eben", Bnggs I '' 

T • u <- rThe New 

Josiah Carver i , . ,^ „ 
t , ^ Meeting Hous" 

Samuel bavery J 



124 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

inent man in the work of organizing the 
town, was chosen town treasurer, and in 1739 
was appointed by the church to settle with 
Deacon Haralen, as the records state, " to 
see how he had disposed of ye contributions." 
But the tables were turned when, in 1747, 
the town " Chose Decon John Ellis to Prose- 
cute Isaac Bump for ye money that Is due 
from sd Bump to the Town," which he had 
collected while he was its treasurer. ^ 

There were no stage-coaches to pull up 
at the inn, but travelers on horseback from 
Plymouth and Cape Cod, and those coming 
by sloops from Nantucket and the Vineyard, 
rested there. Its bar-room was a crowded 
resort on town-meeting days ; there the mili- 
tia captain had his headquarters on training 
days, and all the year it was the home of the 
town's municipal business, — 

" Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, 
And news much older than their ale went round." 

Its gardens extended to the river, where sea 
trout were to be caught in great numbers on 

1 The surname of Edward Bompasse has received from 
his descendants varied spellings, such as Bumpas, Bumpus, 
Bump. In a deed of 1793 " Jeremiah Bump," for £y>o, 
conveys his old farm and house in Wareham to his " son 
Jeremiah Bumpus Jr." 



THE TOWN'S MEETING-HOUSE. 1 25 

spring mornings. Sloops and scows were 
moored a little way down the tide, and families 
that sailed to meeting from the bay shores 
grounded their boats near by. From its 
windows could be seen the town stocks, in 
which drunkards who had left their money in 
the bar-room were seated until they became 
sober, jeered at meanwhile by the village 
boys. The stock-irons also held fast at times 
those unfortunate offenders who had not 
money to pay the fines imposed upon them 
by His Majesty's justice of the peace. 

One November day in 1763 this dignitary 
dismounted in front* of the inn and entered 
the bar-room. He laid aside his beaver hat 
and red camlet cloak trimmed with fox skins, 
and seated himself by the great fireplace to 
chat with his brother the landlord ; when 
there entered a sailor from a sloop just ar- 
rived from Nantucket, who, after drinking a 
grog, became boisterous and finally profane. 
Whereupon the scene was changed. The 
bar-room was transformed into a court-room, 
and this audacious offender of the King's 
peace was tried, condemned, and punished 
according to colony law. The sentence which 
placed him in the stocks was this : — 



126 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

" At a cort held before John Fearing Esquire 
one of his majesties Justices of the peace at the 
House of Benjamin Fearing In Wareham on the 
II of November 1763 Jonathan Wing marriner 
being Convicted for prefainly Swaring in the 
Preasence and hearing of said Justice Two prefain 
Oaths It is considered by said Justice that the 
said Jonathan pay a fine of Five Shillings for the 
first of said Oaths and one Shilling For the other 
to his majesty For the use of the Poor of Wareham 
or In Default thereof that the said Jonathan being 
a common sailor shall be sett in the Stocks an 
Hour and halfe." 

In sight fron\ the new meeting-house stood 
the whipping-post, at which convicted thieves 
were flogged by a constable, and tramps, or 
persons who by the law of England were 
accounted vagabonds, were " whipt with rodds 
so as it exceed not fifteen stripes." 






IX. 

A SUNDAY MORNING IN 1771. 

jiET US turn away from the whipping- 
post and enter into the new meeting- 
house on a Sunday morning of June 
in the year 1771. 

Along the highways, the green lanes and 
field paths, and from the boat landings, come 
the worshipers in family groups, followed 
by their dogs. Some are on foot, some are 
on horseback, the wife riding on a pillion be- 
hind her husband, their youngest child on 
the saddle in front of him ; all are of one 
blood and of one faith. Young men are 
carrying their best homespun coats on their 
arms, and young women are carrying their 
best shoes in their hands, intending to put 
them on before they enter the meeting-house. 
His Majesty's justice of the peace comes 
in a dusty shay, drawn by a stiff-limbed 
mare that refuses to quicken her gait not- 



1 28 COLONIAL TIMES t N BUZZARDS BA V. 

withstanding her master's repeated objurga- 
tions, accompanied by a jerk of the reins, to 
" Git along, yer old dumb toad ! " The people 
exchange greetings with each other as they 
arrive at the doors, and when the Squire 
alights they salute him respectfully, for no 
man except the minister is considered to be 
his peer. 

We enter by the great door, whose face is 
covered with all kinds of announcements to 
the public. Opposite to us as we enter stands 
the pulpit, lofty and formidable in appearance. 
There is a large window behind it, a dome- 
shaped sounding-board above it, and a steep 
staircase leading up to its entrance. When 
the minister has ascended the stairs and shut 
the pulpit door behind him he is entirely lost 
to sight. At the foot of the pulpit and facing 
^he congregation are the seats of the deacons. 
Before them stands the communion table, 
which is not served on sacrament days with 
unfermented wine, as we know from an order 
of the church at Milton in May, 1734, "that 
the Deacons be desired to provide good 
Canary wine for the Communion Table." 

Next to the pulpit is the pew of the minis- 
♦■^r's wife. Out of it a i>arrow door opens 



A SUNDAY MORNING IN 1771. IIC) 

into a closet under the pulpit, in which the 
town's broom, the demijohn of Canary wine, 
and the pewter baptizing-basin and com- 
munion flagons and cups are kept.^ From 
this pew a line of square pews runs along the 
walls of the house, around to the other side 
of the pulpit. They are of clearest oak, whose 
beauty is not covered by paints. They were 
made with the best skill of the village 
carpenters.^ They are topped by balustrades, 
and are so high that when the congregation 
is seated a few heads only appear in sight 
above them. Seats are hung by hinges on 
three sides of each pew, and are lifted when 
the worshipers stand up for long prayers, 

^ "July 1750. Then Esq' Fearing delivered me eight pound 
(Old tenor) & desired me with it to procure a Flaggon which 
he intended to give to this church as a gift, & have the two 
first letters of his name set thereon, and if the money was 
not enough he would make it up to me when I had pro- 
cured it." 

"May 6. 1752. Our sister Mary King wife to Ichabod 
King of Rochester presented this church with a Bason for 
baptism with the two first letters of her name thereon : The 
church voted their thanks to her therefor. And it was the 
same time proposed & voted that I should have the old 
Bason allowing therefor what the two Deacons should Judge 
it to be worth." — ReV^ Rowland Thacher, in the Wareham 
Church Records. 



I30 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

permitting them to lean against the parti- 
tions, where they get some assistance in 
standing. The pews are the upper seats of 
the synagogue. The lower seats are two 
ranges of benches in the centre of the house, 
fronting the pulpit and separated by the great 
alley. In the fore-seats of these ranges, elder- 
ly people and those who are hard of hearing 
are seated ; the hind-seats are occupied by 
younger persons. Of the same rank are cer- 
tain seats in the galleries, reached by stairs 
in the corners of the house. 

Mr, Rowland Thacher is the minister. He 
came fresh from Harvard College to this 
secluded town more than thirty years ago ; 
and here he has stayed, occupied in preach- 
ing, farming, marrying, burying, and repre- 
senting all the scholastic learning of the 
community. It is said that he is not "as 
young as he used to be " ; but he is still able 
to sympathize in the fortunes and misfor- 
tunes of his flock. He has been poorly paid 
for his labors ; his small salary has always 
been small and always in arrears, and even 
now the town is owing to him that of last year. 
Nevertheless, with a cheerful countenance he 
appears at the parapet of the pulpit, and 



A SUNDA V MORNING IN 177 r. 1 3 I 

Stretching out his hands as signal for the con- 
gregation to stand up, he begins the services 
with a prayer thirty minutes long. 

When it is ended the seats in the pews are 
let fall, making a noise like an irregular dis- 
charge of muskets ; there is a shuffling of 
feet on the sanded floor, an uneasy settling 
of the congregation in the seats, and at last 
everybody is still. During the stillness Mr. 
Thacher appears again and announces a 
psalm to be sung. There are not many psalm 
books in the house, there is no choir and but 
little knowledge of music. But there is Dea- 
con William Blackmer, of Blackmer's Pond, 
who has a strong voice, and for that reason 
has been appointed to read and tune the 
psalms in meeting. He stands on the pulpit 
stairs with a pine pitch-pipe in hand. He 
blows the key-note, recites two lines of the 
psalm, adjusts his voice, which is somewhat 
raspy by reason of too many shoutings to his 
oxen yesterday, and then he starts away. 
The congregation joins in an arduous pursuit. 
It lags behind, its tones are dreadfully dis- 
cordant. Some dogs sitting in the alleys 
utter cries of distress, and Mr. Thacher's 
collie, lying at the pulpit door, howls patheti- 



132 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARHS BAY. 

cally at the music. But Deacon Blackmer, 
as in duty bound, keeps on liis winding way, 
by turns reciting and starting, until all the 
psalm is worked off ; and the congregation 
then relapses into quiet. 

From this condition it is summoned by a 
signal to stand up while Mr. Thacher becomes 
"more large in prayer." This prayer is an 
important part of the service. It has a sys- 
tematic beginning, middle, and end. It takes 
alternately the form of a petition and a nar- 
ration, and includes within its sweep Noah, 
Abraham, the ancient Hebrews, the sick and 
the afflicted of the parish, and His Majesty 
King George the Third. When its long- 
drawn end is reached there is another slam- 
ming of seats and another shuffling of feet 
on the sanded floor. 

In the hush that follows, Thomas Samson, 
son of Ichabod, doorkeeper, floor -sweeper, 
grave-digger, is seen going up the pulpit 
stairs. His earlier duty was beating the 
town drum to announce meeting-time. Now 
and then he has swept the meeting-house 
floor and has sifted fresh sand upon it. He 
also has provided cold water for the ferocious 
custom of baptizing babies in the meeting- 



A SUNDAY MORNING IN 1771. 133 

house on the first Sunday after their birth, 
however inclement the weather or perilous 
the journey thither ; a cruel custom as we 
now estimate the value of infant life. John 
Cotton, minister at Hampton, wrote in his 
diary : " Being Ld's day my wife was de- 
livered of a Son who was baptised by myself 
on ye Sabbath following viz Dec 28. 1701 & 
was called Simon." 

Now, the principal business of Thomas 
Samson is with the tall, brass-bound hour-glass 
standing on the pulpit's edge. He turns it 
in view of the preacher, who is to preach 
an hour, or as long as the sands are run- 
ning. It is not the tender mercy and love, but 
the inflexible justice and anger, of the Su- 
preme Being that the preacher sets before the 
congregation. He declares that " the saints 
in heaven will rejoice in seeing the justice of 
God glorified in the sufferings of the damned." 
The doctrine is cut into many divisions, in 
which the objections of skeptics are stated 
and successfully controverted. Then comes 
the application, followed by reproof and ex- 
hortation adapted to the supposed needs of all 
hearers. Perhaps it will be necessary to turn 
the hour-glass for another run before every 



134 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

hearer can get the teaching fitted to his 
condition. 

The dreadful doctrine of the sermon and 
the loud voice of the preacher are a contrast 
to the cheerful and peaceful surroundings of 
the house, whose doors and windows are open, 
admitting freely the summer air and the 
beneficent sunshine. The rustling of leaves 
on neighboring oaks, the songs of birds, the 
stamping of horses hitched to the trees, the 
drowsy hum of insects, are interludes to the 
long argument. Now a great bumble-bee 
sails into the house as if it were a traveler 
turned aside to inquire about the noise in the 
pulpit. Every eye turns to this new-comer 
as to one that brings relief. It circles around 
the preacher's head, it buzzes against the 
pulpit window, skims back and forth over the 
congregation, and encourages the restless 
boys and girls to believe that it is about to 
ahght on the bald head of Barnabas Bates, 
the warden. 

In spite of the energetic tones of the 
preacher a drowsiness comes over some of the 
farmers, who try to resist it by standing up, 
or by taking off their heavy homespun coats, 
or by going out to quie^t their horses. A 



A SUNDAY MORNING IN lyyi. 1 35 

babe lying on its mother's lap as she sits in 
the doorway of the porch utters a cry, and 
suddenly every head turns towards the babe. 
But the preacher continues to unfold his 
gloomy theme, unmindful of the weariness 
apparent in the congregation. He began at 
*' firstly," he has now passed " twelfthly," 
and he begs his hearers to follow him " once 
more " as he opens another gradient. 

When at last " finally " is ended, with 
" aymen ! " — there is a noisy rush of boys to 
the doors, by which they escape into the open 
air, unless constables have been placed there 
to keep, as the Salem records have it, "ye 
doores fast and suffer none to goe out before 
ye whole exercise bee ended." 





X. 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 




LTHOUGH Rowland Thacher was 
the first minister of the town, he 
was not the first minister of the peo- 
ple who formed it. The Agawame planters, 
in their lay-out of lands in 1701, appropriated 
two lots for tillage and one lot of meadow, 
"two and for the yuse of the ministre," as 
their records say, and this was before they 
had a minister or knew where to get one. In 
1712 they voted " that Mr. Rouland Cotton 
should have Improvement of ye meadow for 
seaven years next ensewing." He was the 
minister of Sandwich town, ten miles to the 
eastward ; and this grant indicates that he 
rode over to the plantation at certain times 
to preach, perhaps under the forest trees, 
while he continued to live in Sandwich and 
be its minister. He was paid for this itiner- 
ant service by the mowing and pasturage of 
the ministry meadow. In those days there 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 37 

appears to have been a relation between min- 
isters and horses which made it necessary 
that measures for the maintenance of each 
should be taken simultaneously. Mr. Cotton 
had not only the Agawame meadow for the 
support of his horse, but he also had the 
privilege of pasturing that omnivorous ani- 
mal in the Sandwich burying-ground, pro- 
vided he fenced it around. This privilege is 
not to be considered as an indication of pov- 
erty, for a burying-ground was, in colonial 
times, a favorite browsing ground of the 
minister's horse. But it was sometimes 
necessary for a town to request its minister 
"not to have more horses there than shall 
be really necessary ; " as a Plymouth town 
meeting requested the Rev. Chandler Rob- 
bins, in 1789, when he was pasturing several 
horses on Burial Hill, much to the damage 
of the grave-stones. 

Mr. Cotton had another privilege as the 
Sandwich town minister. The town had voted 
to him a portion of " all such drift whales as 
shall during the time of his ministry come 
ashore." Samuel Maverick, in " A Briefe De- 
scription of New England," written about 
1660, .speaks of "a good Towne called Sand- 



138 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

wich, a Towne which affords some yeares a 
quantity of Whalebone made of Whales- which 
drive up dead in that Bay." And the Ply- 
mouth Court had, in 1662, announced that it 
" would bee very comendable and beneficiall 
to the townes where God's Providence shall 
cast any whales if they should agree to sett 
appart some pte of every such fish or oyle 
for the Incurragement of an able Godly min- 
nester amongst them." Thus Sandwich was 
" a good Towne," and with its whales it en- 
couraged Mr. Cotton in the work of the min- 
istry, while he encouraged the Agawame 
planters. 

After these planters had organized their 
town under the corporate name of Wareham, 
a name taken — no one knows why — from 
the ancient town in Dorset, on the English 
Channel, their first duty was to provide them- 
selves with an " able, learned, orthodox min- 
ister of good conversation to dispense the 
Word of God unto them," according to the 
province laws. They immediately accepted 
Rowland Thacher as a man answering to 
this requirement, and agreed to maintain 
him by a settlement of three hundred pounds, 
and an annual salary of one hundred and 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 39 

twenty pounds old tenor. These sums, al- 
though of large denomination, were of small 
value in coined money. The new minister, 
whose grandfather, Antony Thacher, came 
to Boston from Salisbury, England, in 1635, 
was thirty years old, and married to Abigail 
Crocker. The town which called him was 
composed of frugal husbandmen, who made 
their small gains by small savings. They 
therefore wished an inexpensive ordination, 
and instructed their master of ceremonies, 
one Edward Bump, to provide " not accord- 
ing to the custom of Taverns Selling of Vict- 
uals but as shall be Judged Reasonable by 
the People." And so the minister was or- 
dained in a reasonable way December 26, 
1739- The next day he organized a church of 
forty-four members. It was the frame upon 
which the town was built ; every inhabitant 
being included within the fold of the parish. 
After a time the town became neglectful 
of its duty to its minister, and as often as 
it was assembled to consider the constantly 
recurring problem, "How much money the 
town is for raising for defraying the neces- 
sary charges arising within the same," the 
question of the amount of salary to be paid 



140 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

to Parson Thacher caused disagreeable dis- 
cussions. In this respect Wareham did not 
stand alone. A similar feeling in regard to 
the support of ministers prevailed in other 
towns. In an address to the legislature of 
1747, Governor Shirley said: " I have heard 
so much of the Difficultys which many of 
the Ministers of the Gospel are brought un- 
der thro the great Depreciation of the Bills 
of Credit in which their Salarys are paid and 
the little care taken by their People to make 
them proper allowances for it, that it seems 
probable many will soon be necessitated to 
quit the Ministry." This promised to be the 
destiny of Parson Thacher. But there was 
a law which declared that if a town neglected 
for six months to make suitable provision for 
its minister, the Court of Quarter Sessions 
shall order a competent allowance for him 
out of the estate and ability of the people. 
The town, being reminded of this, was warned 
to assemble, in May, 1748, "to Cum" — as 
the town clerk of the period recorded it — 
" to Sum a Greement with Mr. Thacher that 
may Be to his Satisfaction as to ye Support 
that he ought to have from the town that 
thear may Be return maid to ye General 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 141 

Cort." In consequence of this warning, a 
committee was chosen to treat with him 
"consearning his Salery to know how much 
money would content him ;" and the record 
says that "he came in town-meeting and 
thear said he Declined saying anything in 
that affare," — a decision which showed the 
honorable character of the man. The result 
was that three hundred pounds were voted to 
him as a salary for that year. This was paper 
money, and the value of the sum was about 
seventy-five Spanish milled dollars. In 1750 
he was given to improve the ministry lands 
in Agawame, where Mr. Cotton had pastured 
his horse thirty-eight years before, and he 
was authorized to bring a suit to dispossess 
the occupant of them, who was Esquire Is- 
rael Fearing, His Majesty's justice of the 
peace, and consequently the greatest man in 
town. This disagreeable task he probably 
did not undertake, as it was evidently an at- 
tempt of the town to employ him to pull its 
chestnuts out of the fire. His salary was 
soon after made £,<,Z ^s. 8d., which, by the 
new law, was equivalent to one hundred and 
seventy-eight Spanish milled dollars ; and he 
was told that he might have the town's 



142 COLOiV/AL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

money lying in the treasury of Middleborough 
" for his own use if any be there." Probably 
there was not a penny there. 

Parson Thacher had occasion to discipHne 
some members of the cliurch who refused to 
make, in pubUc, a penitent confession of their 
errors, according to a custom derived from 
Old England.-^ Those who were absent from 
the communion table on sacrament day were 
summoned to account for their absence. Per- 
haps the absentee pleaded that he could not 
commune with a neighbor who had cheated 
him in trading, or had spoken bad words of 
him, or whom he had seen overcome with 
strong drink. Both persons were summoned 
before the church, their statements were 
heard, and the erring one was advised to offer 
" christian satisfaction " by a public confes- 
sion of penitence. A refusal to do this 
caused the member to be "suspended." 

A troublesome case of discipline was that 
of Abigail Muxom, who in 1750 became the 
subject of a town scandal which was proba- 
bly relished by the gossips as thoroughly as 

1 " By coaches to church four miles off, where a pretty 
good sermon and a declaration of penitence of a man that 
had undergone the church's censure for his wicked life." 
Fepys's Diary, June i6th, 1665. 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 43 

similar scandals are relished now. Three 
years later the church took notice of it on 
the complaint of four members, the gist of 
which was that "this our sister has been 
guilty of immodest conduct." It met to con- 
sider the evidences on which the complaint 
rested. These were three old and unsworn 
statements, running as follows : — 

"Elisha Benson Saith That he was at Edmund 
Muxoms house some time since & saw sd 
Muxoms wife very familiar with Joseph Benson 
by talking of balderdash stuff & kissing & hug- 
ging one another in the absence of her husband. 
At another time I saw them coming out of the 
house together & discovered none but they two. 
Middleborough, Octr. 1750." 

" Caleb Cushman & his wife do Testify & say 
That we some time since have seen Joseph Ben- 
son & Abigail Muxom at our house & their be- 
haviour was uncommon for married people; she 
fawning about him & sometimes in his lap or 
upon his knee & he haleing of her, running his 
face up to hers, & as we suppose kissing of her 
or aiming to do so & talking & joacking like 
young people. — Plymton, Octr. 1750." 

"Jedidah Swift wife to Eben' Swift Junr Saith 
that she was at the house of Edmund Muxom 



144 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

four times the summer past & his wife Abigail 
Muxom did several times call her child to her 
& ask the child who its father was, & the child 
would answer Doctor Jo's at which she would 
laugh & make sport of. — Wareham, Decern'. 3. 
1750." 

The records, written by Parson Thacher, 
state that the complaint and "the above evi- 
dences were read to the church in the pres- 
ence of this our sister. She denyed the two 
first evidences as having no truth in them, 
but the last she owned to be true." She was 
then, by a vote, " suspended from the com- 
munion table till she give a christian satisfac- 
tion ;" and soon the matter was forgotten. 

In 1753, while perplexed about his salary, 
his wife died. In the same year also died 
the eldest son of Esquire Israel Fearing, 
leaving a pretty and pious young widow. Nat- 
urally the thoughts of Parson Thacher turned 
to her, and occasionally he might be seen 
riding his mare to Agawame to visit her. It 
was a lonesome ride, across the Woonkinco 
River by a causeway over the dam, then east- 
ward two miles on a sandy road winding 
through silent pine woods in which sheep 
were pastured and foxes were hunted, until 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 145 

it reached Deacon Swift's inn, where the 
farmers were accustomed to barter mutton 
and hay for rum by the gallon. The inn 
stood on a picturesque site near the bank of 
the Agawame River ; near it were a lumber 
mill and a*merchant's store, making a fussy 
little centre of trade. But the parson does 
not pull up there. He rides a half mile fur- 
ther, and reaches " the neighborhood," nigh 
the burying-acre, where the Squire's dwell- 
ing-house stood, and stands to this day. He 
was not a stranger there. The Squire's 
account -book mentions him as a buyer of 
"cheas, malases, hay, hunny, an ox waying 
427 pounds, laths, mutten." But his errand 
now is for nothing of that sort. He wants 
the pretty widow for a wife. He is many 
years her senior, yet, being the town minister 
and a graduate of Harvard College, he is the 
man whom any woman might be glad to wed. 
His suit was short and successful, and in the 
eleventh month from the day he became a 
widower he married Hannah Fearing.^ 

1 The will of Israel Fearing, Esquire, 1754, contained 
the following bequest : " I give and allow to my daugh- 
ter in law Hannah Fearing during her widowhood, the fol- 
lowing privilege namely, the use of the Westerly lower 



146 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

The large and increasing family of the de- 
voted parson needed for their maintenance 
all that he could earn ; but whatever was 
the amount of salary voted by the town, it 
was always far in arrears. This condition 
of things continuing year after year made it 
necessary for the town to do something. In 
September, 1771, it appointed " Dea William 
Blackmer mr Barnabas Bates and Esqr Fear- 
ing and Ensign John Gibbs agents to treat 
with Mr Thacher about his Sallery to know 
what he is willing to tack for ye Insuing year." 
But this game had been played too often 

room in the dwelling liouse I have given to my son Benja- 
min with the westerly garret, one third of the cellar, one 
third of the Leanter at the West end with liberty to bake 
and wash in said Leanter. Also pasturage for two cows 
yearly in the season of pasturing to go with sd Benj's cows 
with privilege of using one third of the little barn on said 
farm. Also liberty to improve a small field about half an 
acre on the South side of the road near said house now 
fenced in. Also liberty of cutting ten cords of wood yearly 
off of the lot I bought of Ebenezer Perry. Also one half 
of the fruit yearly which shall grow in the orchard by said 
Dwelling House. Also pasturage and hay for ten sheep 
yearly on the farm I have given to her son Israel only in 
the Spring, Fall and Winter. Also fodder or salt hay to 
winter two cows yearly off of the place I have given her 
son Israel." All these privileges she gave up to marry the 
town minister. 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 47 

during the thirty years preceding, and Par- 
son Thacher would not treat with them. 
Therefore in October the selectmen issued a 
warrant for a town meeting. The warrant 
recited in detail the several questions to be 
voted upon, as follows : — 

" to Raise money to Pay ye Rev mr Thachers 
Sallery for ye Present year 

" and Likewise to agree with mr thacher as he 
Is Not Satisfied with ye Poorness of his former 
Payment what sum or sums he Shall Have for ye 
Futer yearly and at what time in ye year it shall 
be paid him 

" and Likewise weather sd town will voate to 
Give him any Interest for that Parte that be Neg- 
lected to be Paid in at such Set times or ye 
whole upon Neglect of Payment at sd time 

" and Likewise wheather sd town will allow 
any Interest for what is behind for Last years 
Sallery by reason of it not being Paid in seasion- 
ably." 

It does not appear that these Likewises 
were ever answered. 

His promised salary never promptly paid, 
he tilled the soil for a living as well as the 
souls of the parish, and found his only rec- 
reation in walks about the sandy Zion. For 



148 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

such an humble laborer there were no lux- 
uries, and no vacations except to exchange 
for a Sunday with the minister of a neigh- 
boring town. So Parson Thacher lived in 
his parish, and died there in the winter of 
1775. During his fatal illness the town 
meeting discussed his poor financial condi- 
tion, and voted not to allow him anything 
"for the year past more than his stated 
salery." But he was soon to be free from 
the tyranny of town meetings. Twelve days 
after this vote he entered into his rest, leav- 
ing a "good savor of godlyness behind him." 
Seven months after he was dead the town 
chose a committee to settle with his eldest 
son "relative to his Hon'd Father's Sallery 
the last year which was behind." Whether 
the son ever received the arrears of money 
due to his honored father, no one now 
knoweth. 

Wareham must have a minister even if it 
will not pay his salary promptly ; and no one 
having offered himself as a successor of Mr. 
Thacher, a town meeting held on the 3d of 
April, 1775, chose " Lieut. John Gibbs to Pro- 
vide a minister for the towne & a Place for 
him to bord at." Those were rebelHous times 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 49 

in the province ; and John Gibbs was a com- 
missioned officer in the county miUtia, which 
responded to the Lexington alarm three 
weeks after he had been chosen to supply the 
pulpit. He therefore had no time to attend 
to ministry matters, and went off with his 
company to join the provincial army near 
Boston, leaving the pulpit without a minister. 

During the ensuing summer a young man 
named Josiah Cotton was found at Plymouth 
waiting a call to preach. Immediately the 
town was assembled to consider the matter, 
and a committee was appointed " to wait on 
the Rev. Mr. Cotton to see on what Terms he 
will Preach and on what Terms he would set- 
tle." This having been done, the formalities 
customary in those times between the town 
and the church were attended to. The town 
nominated Mr. Cotton, or, as the phrase of 
the time was, " improved him as a candidate 
for the Resettlement of the Gospel Minis- 
try." The church then voted that " it is its 
Mind and earnest Desire " to take him as its 
pastor, and the town voted "to concur and 
Join with ye Church in a call to settle Mr. 
Cotton." 

His annual salary was to be j[,6^ 13s. 4d., 



I50 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

equivalent to two hundred and nineteen 
Spanish milled dollars, and he was to have a 
settlement of £,\6o, to be paid in three years. 
There was no parsonage in the parish, and 
the new minister was disinclined to "board 
round," as did the schoolmaster and the shoe- 
maker while practicing their professions. He 
wrote a letter, in which he said, if the town 
would furnish him with a parsonage, he 
would, "on account of the difficulty of the 
times, relinquish the sum of six pounds thir- 
teen shillings and four pence for the year to 
come, and after that time if the day should 
still continue distressing by a stoppage of 
trade, make a proportionable relinquishment if 
consistent with necessary support." He fore- 
saw that a war with Great Britain, which the 
politicians of the seditious town of Boston 
were then trying to inflame, would impover- 
ish his parish, and bring distress upon the 
province. The town did not stop to think of 
these things, nor did it provide a parsonage, 
but immediately made plans for the ordina- 
tion. 

As ministers were settled for life, an ordi- 
nation, on account of its rare occurrence, at- 
tracted all the inhabitants of the town and 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 151 

many from neighboring towns to see the pro- 
cession of the ordaining council escorted by 
drums and fifes, and to enjoy the services at 
the meeting-house and the free lunch at the 
tavern. It was arranged to accompany the 
ordination of the new minister with joyous 
festivities of eating and drinking. The job 
was farmed out to the lowest bidder, who 
happened to be the eldest son of the previous 
minister, and who did not get his pay for 
it until the next spring, when ten pounds 
and two shillings were voted "to Rowland 
Thacher for making Entertanement for the 
ordernation." His instructions were to make 
entertainment "for the Counsell, Ministers & 
Schollars for the Sum of Two Shillings & 
Eight Pence for Each Man & Horse." In 
addition to this there was a feast of a more 
private character arranged by the selectmen, 
who commissioned Samuel Savery and Eben- 
ezer Briggs " to Provide an Entertainment 
for Some Particular Gentlemen & Mr. Cot- 
ton's friends, and to nominate and Invite 
such persons as they shall think Proper." 
Doubtless there was great hilarity at this 
municipal junket. It may be presumed that 
striped bass and scup, mutton, venison, and 



1 5 2 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

corn puddings, wild ducks, oysters, crabs, 
and clams, adorned the board. Shell-fish 
were plenty along-shore then, as they are 
now, and perhaps it was in anticipation of 
this high time that in the spring of this 
year the town had ordered "that there shall 
be no shell-fish nor shells carried out of the 
town." The courses were probably served 
with Canary wine and Barbados rum, and 
with these the selectmen and their " Particu- 
lar Gentlemen " drank Parson Cotton's health 
and wished him a successful ministry. 

Notwithstanding these good wishes, his 
career in Wareham was short. The distress- 
ing days to which he had referred in his let- 
ter became more and more distressing. The 
rebellion against the King, and the ensuing 
war, had made the farmers poor, silver coins 
had disappeared from circulation, and the 
value of the new paper money was reduced 
to such a low degree that the minister's sal- 
ary became a mere pittance, utterly inade- 
quate for his support. Mr. Cotton was obliged 
to ask again and again for more compensa- 
tion. Six hundred pounds were voted to 
him. This not being sufificient for his sup- 
port, and the people being unable or unwilling 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 53 

to afford him further relief, he was dismissed 
by a vote of town meeting in March, 1779. 
He packed his sermons in his saddlebags, 
mounted his horse, and returned to Plymouth, 
where he abandoned the ministry, which could 
not give him a maintenance, became clerk of 
the courts, and a much respected citizen of 
that town. 

After he rode away there was an interval 
of nearly four years before another town 
minister was secured, during which time the 
deacons or selectmen were riding hither 
and thither after a candidate. This riding is 
noted in a record of the town clerk of 1782, 
in which the union of diverse subjects in one 
vote is characteristic of the methods of do- 
ing public business at that time : — "Voted to 
Jeremiah Bump for rideing after a Candidate 
to Preach, £,\ 4s. od. — to Prince Burgess for 
a Shirt for wd Lovell & keeping mr Parmalys 
horse £0 i8s. od." 

In 1782 Noble Everitt, a graduate of Yale 
College, was called to be the town minister. 
He showed much shrewdness by not accept- 
ing the call until by a negotiation with the 
town he had obtained satisfactory terms of 
compensation. It was agreed to give him 



154 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

land, and to build upon it a two-story dwell- 
ing-house for him "in a decent and hand- 
some manner with a convenient cellar under 
the same," to be finished in November, 1783 ; 
to give him a salary of ";^56 silver money," 
free use of the ministry lands and meadows, 
and " wood for the maintenance of his fires." 
The town went to work in earnest to carry 
out this undertaking. The selectmen issued 
a warrant directing the collector to levy and 
collect of each person on a list prepared for 
the purpose his or her proportion, as set 
down, of " the sum of three hundred and 
forty-three pounds, five shillings, three pence, 
two farthings, for defraying the necessary 
expenses for building the Rev. Mr. Noble 
Everitt's house and other ministeral charges." 
The collector was directed to seize the goods 
and chattels of those refusing to pay the as- 
sessment, to keep the same four days, and 
then if payment was not made, to sell them 
"at an Outcry for payment of said money." 
Those who had no goods or chattels and re- 
fused to pay, he was directed to arrest and 
commit " unto the common Goal of the 
county, there to remain until he or they pay 
and satisfy the several sums whereat they are 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 55 

respectively assessed." The list of assessed 
persons probably contains the name of every 
head of a family dwelling in the town, and of 
every widow having an estate. It was a se- 
vere treatment to which they were subjected 
for the public good ; but the house was built, 
and it is still standing on the old road which 
went from the meeting-house to the settle- 
ment on Cromeset Neck, 

The first action of Parson Everitt was to 
propose a season of fasting and self-examina- 
tion. The members of the church, declaring 
themselves to be " sensible of our coldness 
and lukewarmness in religion," voted to re- 
new " our covenant with God and with one 
another," and they appointed a committee 
" to converse with brethren and sisters who 
are or may be guilty of public offence accord- 
ing to the rule given Mat. 18." These 
cleansing explorers brought to light an old 
scandal which had been forgotten. Thirty 
years had elapsed since Abigail Muxom was 
disciplined. Now an old woman, she was 
again called up to listen to the reading of the 
complaint recorded against her in 1753, the 
evidences written in 1750, and to the state- 
ments of new witnesses as to her conduct 
"upwards of twenty years ago :" — 



156 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

"John Benson of Middleborough testifieth 
that upwards of 20 years ago he was at the house 
of Edmund Muxom the husband of said Abigail, 
sometime in the afternoon before sunset, he saw 
said Abigail on bed with Joseph Benson, in the 
easterly part of the house. He also saith that at 
another time he was at work near Edmund Mux- 
om's house and heard him repeatedly bid his son 
Lem. go and fetch the horse and on refusal cor- 
rected him. Abigail came to the door and said 
— What do you whip that child for ? it is none 
of yours, upon which John Benson said I always 
thought so, at which she went into the house 
and said no more. April nth, 1783." 

" Hannah Besse testifieth that sometime about 
20 years ago or upward she went to Edmund 
Muxom's house late in the evening and there saw 
Abigail his wife on bed by the fire with Joseph 
Benson. April nth, 1783." 

The accused woman, having listened to 
these statements, positively declared, in pres- 
ence of the assembled church, that "the 
evidences of John Benson and Harriet Besse 
are false." There was no friend or attor- 
ney to represent her before this self-right- 
eous tribunal ; and, without cross-examining 
the unsworn witnesses, the church voted 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 57 

(men only were allowed to vote) that she " is 
guilty of the charge." Then there was a 
pause in the proceedings, and the people went 
home as if to think over the matter. After 
some weeks had elapsed, she was again sum- 
moned before the church, and was " admon- 
ished by the pastor" of the perilous position 
in which she stood. Some of the sinful 
brethren who had voted her to be guilty, " la- 
bored" with her; and sympathizing women 
conversed with her. But she refused to con- 
fess that she was guilty of the alleged sin, 
and resolutely maintained that the witnesses 
were liars. 

From the neighboring towns six ministers 
were then summoned to the inquest. They 
came and made a holiday ; the six ministers 
on horseback, and the village idlers, to whom 
the spicy story was familiar, crowding around 
them and believing that justice must reign 
though the heavens fell. 

Again there was a meeting of the church ; 
Abigail Muxom stood in the sovereign pres- 
ence of the six ministers, while the floor and 
galleries of the meeting-house were crowded 
by curious spectators attracted by what was 
to them " the greatest show on earth." The 



158 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

evidences were read aloud from the records : 
the accused woman again denied their truth ; 
the six ministers were requested " to give 
their opinion what particular immodest con- 
duct our sister is guilty of, and how this 
church ought to proceed with her." They, 
" having conversed with the Brethren of the 
church and heard what said Abigail had to 
say in her own defence," consulted together, 
and declared that her "immodest conduct in 
former years with one Doct. Joseph Benson 
was forbidden by the 7th commandment," 
and that it was her duty " to make a peni- 
tent and public confession of her sin;" and 
"if she refuse or neglect to do it," the church 
" to proceed after other suitable forbearance 
to excommunication." The church then 
"Voted that Abigail Muxom is guilty of 
immodest conduct according to the opinion 
of the Rev^ Pastors," and it appointed three 
stern-visaged men to converse with her in 
the hope of obtaining a confession of the 
alleged sin. Their mission, as they reported, 
"appeared to have no good effect." Then, 
after another delay indicating a reluctance 
to pass such a terrible judgment upon "this 
unhappy sister," the church came together 



THE TOWN'S MINISTER. 1 59 

and the men " Voted that Abigail Muxom be 
rejected and excommunicated from the com- 
munion of this church, as being visibly a har- 
dened and impenitent sinner out of the visi- 
ble Kingdom of Christ, one who ought to be 
viewed and treated by all good people as a 
heathen and a publican in imminent danger 
of eternal perdition. Praying that this sep- 
aration of hers from christian fellowship may 
not be eternal, but a means of her true and 
unfeigned repentance that her soul may be 
saved in the day of the Lord." 

Four years later Parson Everitt was pros- 
trated by an illness which continued month 
after month, and caused the church to be 
perplexed respecting its duty "on account 
of their pastor being unable to preach by 
reason of bodily indisposition." Advice was 
sought from the town meeting ; and after a 
lapse of ten months the six neighboring ec- 
clesiastics were consulted on the question 
whether the church " ought to wait any 
longer for his recovery or proceed to a sep- 
aration." It looked as if Abigail Muxom was 
about to be avenged, when Parson Everett sud- 
denly recovered his health and returned to 
the pulpit which he had narrowly escaped 
losing. 



l6o COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

He appears to have been a thrifty man. In 
addition to his labors as a preacher, in which 
he gained a good repute, he was a successful 
farmer ; and it is noted in the town records 
that he built a rail fence around the ministry 
fresh meadow with two hundred cedar rails, 
which the town had bought for that purpose 
from the "loest bider." He also received 
from the town eighteen shillings a year, or 
three dollars, for sweeping the meeting-house 
and taking care of it. This was an office of 
honor as well as of profit, and it was after- 
wards held by Andrew Mackie, the town phy- 
sician. The parson increased the interesting 
variety of his occupations by leasing a fulling 
mill on the Woonkinco dam in sight of the 
meeting-house. Here on Sunday he preached 
to his people, and there on Monday ho 
cleansed their homespun cloths, even unto 
the year of his death, which was the year 
1 8 19, when colonial times had begun to pass 
away. 



XL 



THE TOWN'S SCHOOLMASTER. 




N February, 1741, the farmers of 
Wareham came together and voted 
"to have a School Master this year." 
Having done this they rested. A month 
later a warrant was posted on the meeting- 
house door summoning a meeting "To know 
the Towns Mind, whether they are for hav- 
ing a School Master or Mistress." They 
came together again and voted " to have a 
School Mistress for six months and Jedediah 
Wing to be the man to provide her in each 
half of the town." And then they rested 
again. 

It is doubtful if Jedediah Wing did as he 
was directed to do, for no mention of the en- 
gagement of a schoolmistress is to be found 
in the town records. But Israel Fearing's 
account-book reveals the fact that there was 
at this time a teacher who went from house 



l62 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

to house to fit children with knowledge, as 
the shoemaker went in a like circuit to fit 
them with shoes ; and it is probable that the 
fittings of the latter were fully as good as 
those of the former. This is what the ac- 
count-book says : — 

"April y*' 27 day 1741 Mr doty came to keep 
Scool at my hous 

"June ye 8 day in 1741 Mr doty came to 
boord at my hous and keep Scool thare to ye 
22 day of July 

"Jenauary y^ 14 day 1742 biniamin tupper 
came to my hous to ceep Scool " 

In May, 1743, a warrant for a town meet- 
ing was issued, stating a desire "to know the 
Towns Mind whether they are for having the 
School Settled and also how often they are 
for having it moved and how they are for 
haveing Him Dieted." These questions were 
disposed of by an agreement to keep a school 
four months in each of three sections of the 
town ; and as to the schoolmaster's board, it 
should be rated at eight shillings a week, old 
tenor, which at that time may have been 
equal to nearly forty cents in honest silver 
money. 



THE TOWN'S SCHOOLMASTER. 1 63 

The treasurer's book shows that a school 
was kept in 1743, although this fact would 
not be established by the action of the town 
meeting. In the opinion of the rural popu- 
lation of New England, schools were an 
■unnecessary expense. Oftentimes the for- 
malities of town meetings, by which it was 
ordered "to set up a school this year," had 
no other intent than to show an outward 
compliance with the unpopular school laws of 
the province. Whenever the people ("ould 
contrive a way by which the expenses of a 
school could be saved, there would be no 
school during that year. And when, on ac- 
count of this neglect to observe the school 
laws, the town was presented by the grand 
jury of the county, it was customary to de- 
pute the most influential townsman to go 
and answer the presentment by such excuses 
as could be made. 

In February, 1744, the usual routine was 
repeated. The farmers were summoned " to 
know what the Towns Mind is for doing 
about a School for the insuing year." The 
school of the previous year having cost fifty- 
five pounds, old tenor, which may have been 
equivalent to fifty-five Spanish dollars, and it 



164 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

being necessary to raise this sum by a gen- 
eral tax, the Town's Mind was for doing noth- 
ing ; and not until the following July did it 
consent to have a school opened. Then 
Eleazar King was chosen schoolmaster. He 
gave satisfaction to his patrons until the day 
when the town clerk stood up in the meeting- 
house and screamed out Eleazar's intention 
to marry Lydia Bump, who was already mar- 
ried to a wandering husband. This inten- 
tion being declared by the church to be an 
offense to the good and wholesome laws of 
the province, he was compelled to quit the 
school, while Lydia was disciplined, and the 
town cast about for another schoolmaster.^ 
John Bishup, the town clerk, wrote in the 

1 "At a church meeting July i. 1747. voted that our sis- 
ter Lydia Bump be put by from special ordinances till she 
gave christian satisfaction for the following offence, viz. 
In that she has for some time kept company with & now 
is published to Eleazar King in order for marriage : altho 
her husband has not been absent but about one year & half, 
& in which time he has often been seen & heard of by us 
& that too within a year past, which procedure we look 
upon as contrary to the good & wholesome laws of this 
province in that case provided. Also voted yt sd E. King 
be denied communion with us & ye church in Plymton to 
whom he belongs be acquainted with it." — Wareham 
Church Records. 



THE TOWN'S SCHOOLMASTER. 1 65 

records of 1748, as follows: "DeconElles 
says he had discerst mr William Rayment to . 
know whether he would Sarve the town as a 
Scoolmaster and he Inclined to Sarve the 
town if the town will allow him Eightey 
Pounds a year old teener and ye modarater 
Put It to vote whether ye town would Imploy 
ye sd Raymond In the affare In Keeping 
Scool at the aforesd tearms and the vote Past 
In ye Negative " 

On this rejection of the deacon's candidate, 
Samuel Savery was chosen " to Bee the man 
to Git a Sutable man," and to report " what 
tarmes such a man would sarve the town for." 
In January, 1749, he reported that William 
Rayment had reduced his price, and could be 
had "to keep scool half a yeare for thirty 
nine pounds old teener." The moderator, so 
says the record, " Put to vote whether the 
Town would have sd Rayment to keep scool 
on ye tarmes offerd or not and the Vote 
Past in the Negative." 

In the mean time the intention of marriage 
between Lydia Bump and Eleazar King was 
atoned in a public and penitent confession by 
the woman of her error. This brought Elea- 
zar into favor, and he was chosen again to 



1 66 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

keep the town's school. One of the school- 
masters in subsequent years and previous to 
the Revolution was Andrew Mackie, the town 
physician, who, having studied physic with 
his father at Southampton, Long Island, left 
his home a young man in search of fortune. 
Arriving at Wareham, dressed in a red coat 
and small-clothes of good quality, he took 
lodgings at the inn, where he attracted the 
notice of Charity Fearing, the innkeeper's 
daughter, who fell in love with him on sight 
and eventually married him. Here, begin- 
ning his career by teaching the town school, 
and by riding long distances over bad roads 
to practice physic upon the farmers as op- 
portunity offered, he found the fortune of 
which he was in search. There is a writing 
in the town treasurer's book running as fol- 
lows : "July ye 26: 1766 Paid John Fear- 
ing Esqre for Bowrding Docter Maci when 
he keept scool 17s. 4d." 

The frugal mind of the colonial farmer 
reckoned the schoolmaster as a day-laborer, 
and the desire was to hire him at as low a 
price, and to spread his labors over as large 
a territory, as possible. Each section of the 
town had his services during two or three 



THE TOWN'S SCHOOLMASTER. 1 6/ 

months of the year, when the scholars were 
taught to read, to write, to cipher, and noth- 
ing more. He was paid sometimes in money 
and sometimes in merchandise, and his diet 
was "thrown in." There was no standard by 
which to test his skill as a teacher, but the 
one generally esteemed the most skillful was 
he whose price was the lowest; even if he 
were the chief of blockheads 

" Who tries with ease and unconcern 
To teach what ne'er himself could learn." 

His official seat was a great chair, behind 
a table or desk on which he made a dis- 
play of birch rods. There he announced his 
laws, whose penalties were floggings ; and 
there he frowned upon the youngsters whose 
roguish pranks kept him so actively occupied 
that the flag bottom of the chair needed fre- 
quent repairing. " Paid ten shillings," say 
the Woburn records of 1747, "for bottoming 
the Scoole Hous Cheer." 

The schoolhouse was usually a small un- 
painted building standing by the roadside like 

" A ragged beggar sunning." 

It contained a large fireplace, for whose fires 
the children's parents provided wood. Its 



1 68 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

square room was furnished with rough 
benches, made smoother and glossier every 
year by the friction of the woolen frocks and 
leathern breeches of restless pupils to whom 
schooling was a bore. 

" Within the master's desk is seen, 

Deep scarred by raps official ; 
The warping floor, the battered seats, 

The jack-knife's carved initial ; 
The charcoal frescos on its wall, 

Its door-worn sill betraying 
The feet that, creeping slow to school. 

Went storming out to playing." 





XII. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 




N a back leaf of the town-book, be- 
tween the records of marriage and 
death, it is written : " At a Request 
of ye town of Boston the Inhabatance of the 
Town of Wareham met togather on ye i8 
Day of Jan"^ 1773 To Consider of matters 
of Grevinces ye Provience was under." 

At this meeting three men were selected 
to lay " ye above said matters of Grevince " 
before the town, and then an adjournment 
was voted to the bar-room of Benjamin Fear- 
ing's inn, the 8th day of February. Here 
the same persons met on the appointed day 
" to Consider," as the quaint narrative states, 
"of a Letter of Corrispondence from the 
town of Boston Occasioned by Sundrey 
Grievences the People of this Provence at 
Present Labour under Respecting Sundrey 
acts of the Parliament of Greait Brition 



I/O COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

therby Drowing a tribute or tax from the 
People of this Provience." Resolutions were 
adopted similar to those adopted in other 
towns, the substance of which was that the 
people of Wareham "have been and still 
are " deprived of their natural rights as citi- 
zens of the British empire, and will join 
other towns in an effort to regain them. The 
scholarly style of these resolutions, as well 
as their political statements, show that they 
were drafted in Boston. 

The assembly at the inn was not a regular 
town meeting ; it was not summoned by the 
selectmen's warrant ; it was not held in the 
meeting-house, the place appointed for all 
town meetings ; and its proceedings were 
written by Noah Fearing, the town clerk, not 
in their proper place, but in a part of the 
book where they would be concealed from 
general observation.^ 

1 " Voated to aggom this meeting from ye meeting house 
onto an Oack tree out of Doors." — Wareham Records, 
June, 1771. "Voated the town meetings for the Futer be 
holden in the Porch Chamber of the meeting House and if 
at any time the Selectmen thinck that their wants more 
Room for to hold any town meeting then to order the 
Doors opened that the People Go into the Gallarys if they 
see cause." — Wareham Records, March, 1772. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. IJl 

It appears to have been a caucus of par- 
tisans, aided by the town clerk, who sym- 
pathized with the spirit of rebelhon, as his 
subsequent conduct showed. It was an illus- 
tration of the manner in which the Boston 
Committee of Correspondence seized upon 
the authority of a town's name to manufac- 
ture a public opinion hostile to Great Britain, 
wherever such an opinion did not exist. 

There is no reason to believe that the 
farmers of Wareham — loyal, contented, in- 
dustrious, and living remote from the strife 
of politics — felt any interest in the plans of 
the Boston committee, or in its theories of 
natural rights. Indeed, the theories of this 
committee were at odds with those of the 
legislature of the province, which only two 
years previous, March 27, 1771, had accepted 
an address from the town of Ashfield declar- 
ing that " natural rights are in this province 
wholly superseded by civil obligations, and 
in matters of taxation individuals cannot 
with the least propriety plead them." 

As the town had always been contented to 
be without a representative in the legislature, 
while paying the province taxes, it had prac- 
tically assented to the principle of " taxation 



1/2 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

without representation," which had become a 
subject of contention in the refractory town 
of Boston. In 1773 it was fined by the Gen- 
eral Court six pounds "for not sending a 
Representative." At the same time other 
towns to the number of thirty were fined for 
the same default ; an indication that a large 
part of the rural population of the province 
felt no interest in the political questions 
agitated at that time.^ It does not appear 

1 This lack of interest is also shown in the trivial ex- 
cuses commonly made by towns petitioning the General 
Court for a remission of fines imposed for not sending a 
representative. In 1771 the town of Westford prayed for 
a remission of a fine of eight pounds because it " was at 
the expence of Building a new meeting house." The ex- 
cuse of Southboro' was — " greater expence than usual in 
supporting their Poor in making and repairing Bridges 
and Roads." The excuse of Sherbourn was — "great ex- 
pence in rebuilding their meeting house and settling a 
minister." The excuse of Chelsea was — "the smallness 
of the said Town and the poverty of its Inhabitants." The 
excuse of Upton was — "great expence in building a meet- 
ing house and a prospect of further expence in purchasing 
Roads to the said House." The excuse of George Town 
was — "as the Inhabitants were in very distressing circum- 
stances occasioned by the destruction of their Grass by 
Worms." The alleged destruction of their liberties by 
the British Parliament was of less importance than the 
destruction of grass by worms ! 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 1 73 

that the town sent any delegate to the im- 
portant convention called by inhabitants of 
Boston in 1768, at which ninety-six towns of 
Massachusetts were said to be represented, 
to protest against the revenue acts, taxing 
the colonies, quartering troops upon the 
people, and other perils threatening, as was 
supposed, their liberties. The import tax on 
tea — "That worst of Plagues, the detestable 
Tea," as the "Sons of Liberty" called it — 
had been reduced from twelve pence to three 
pence the pound ; and the Wareham farmers 
had no interest in joining in a revolt against 
it with the Boston importers and tradesmen, 
who, as smugglers, had long been defrauding 
the King's revenue. 

There was at this time a good deal of loy- 
alty to the King in the Old Colony. Many 
families had always kept bright the lion and 
unicorn in the back of the chimney, and if 
they avoided discussions with revolutionists 
they were none the less proud in the fact 
that they were natural-born and loyal sub- 
jects of Old England. In 1773 they caused 
to be dissolved the celebrated Old Colony 
Club of Plymouth, an institution established 



174 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

to keep green the memory of the Pilgrims, 
rather than allow its name to be used as rep- 
resenting rebellion against the King. It was 
this condition of public opinion that justified 
James Warren, the originator of the commit- 
tee of correspondence, in declaring to Sam- 
uel Adams that the Plymouth County towns 
could not be aroused except by a power that 
would arouse the dead. Deeds and other 
private documents written by the colonists 
of that period, when referring to the royal 
government, exhibit a veneration for the King 
which was not to be found in the words of 
the orators and tavern and wharf idlers who 
controlled public opinion in Boston. "Join 
us or die ! " was their cry early and late.^ 

1 " There was at the same time in and about Boston a 
large mob element professing ardent patriotism, and com- 
monly regarded as auxiliary to the movements which issued 
in the war of independence. I believe that this element 
was in every respect as harmful and detrimental as it was 
unlawful and immoral ; that it thinned the ranks of the 
patriots, disgusted many worthy citizens with the cause 
which it professed to further, and was of unspeakable bene- 
fit to the neighboring provinces of Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick in giving them from among the exiles from Mas- 
sachusetts the best judges, lawyers, clergymen, and men of 
elegant culture that they have ever had, including not a 
few graduates of Harvard College." — Dr. Andrezv P. Pea- 
body's address to the Bostonian Society, April, 1888. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 1 75 

As the farmers of Wareham had frequent 
intercourse with the neighboring village of 
Bedford, where the famous tea-ship Dart- 
mouth was owned, they probably knew of her 
arrival at Boston, and that an excited multi- 
tude in the Old South meeting - house had 
resolved to boycott all teas until the import 
tax was removed. They knew also that the 
tea-chests and their contents had been thrown 
overboard, as if they were, as Samuel Adams 
classed them, " inveterate enemies " of the 
country. They also may have heard of the 
Boston port bill, an act of Parliament to sus- 
pend the foreign and coastwise trade of Bos- 
ton as a punishment for the tea-chest riot ; 
but they made no sign. Gifts of cattle, fish, 
firewood, pork, clothing, butter, flour, grain, 
vegetables, and money were sent to Boston 
from many towns to relieve its distress under 
the port bill, during the summer of 1774. 
The records show that nothing was sent from 
Wareham. 

A few months later a lawless event in their 
neighborhood brought to the notice of the 
Wareham farmers the disturbed condition of 
public affairs. A large number of young 
men met in the adjoining town of Rochester, 



176 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD-'S BAY. 

September 26, 1774, and organized them- 
selves "to make an excursion into the county 
of Barnstable," and there by forcible means 
to prevent the Inferior Court of Common 
Pleas from holding its regular session. This 
was one of the oldest courts in the province ; 
its jurymen were selected in town meeting ; 
from its decisions an appeal could be taken 
to the Superior Court of Judicature in which 
jurors were drawn by the sheriff. Political 
agitators declared that the method of draw- 
ing jurors by a sheriff, instead of drawing 
them "out of the box" in town meeting, put 
in jeopardy the rights of the people.^ By 
breaking up the county court it was intended 

^ "May ye 3d 1756 the Town chose Simon Hathaway 
Petit Jureyman as the Law Directs by Drawing him out 
the Box to Serve for Trials at the next Inferior Court to 
be holden att Plymouth." — "July ye 13 day 1756 The 
Town Drawd Thomas Whitten out of the Box to Serve 
on ye Petitt Jurey." — Wareham Records, 1756. 

" About eight o'clock Sunday evening there passed by 
here about two hundred men . . . they had taken Vinton 
(the Sheriff) . . . they called upon him to deliver two 
warrants (for juries). Upon his producing them they 
made a circle and burnt them. They then called a vote 
whether they should huzza but it being Sunday evening it 
passed in the negative." — Letter of Abigail Adams, Brain-' 
tree, 14 September, 1774. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. I// 

to destroy an avenue through which business 
could pass to the higher tribunal. 

This band of young men, intent on disor- 
der, styled itself " The Body of the People," 
a title which recalls the three tailors of Too- 
ley Street, who in an address to Parliament 
styled themselves, " We the People of Eng- 
land." It passed through Wareham, where 
it was joined by Noah Fearing, John Gibbs, 
Nathan Briggs, and Salathiel Bumpus, and 
arrived at Sandwich in the same evening. 
The next morning it marched to Barnstable, 
a part on foot, a part on horseback, a drum- 
corps at its head, and Wareham men or boys 
riding as guards in its rear. On arriving at 
Barnstable the band was increased to a large 
mob, which took possession of the grounds 
in front of the court-house and sent scouts 
through the town to ferret out loyal people 
and compel them to renounce " toryism." 
The justices, who were dining together, were 
notified that the " Body of the People " de- 
sired them not to open the court and would 
send them an order to that effect in writing. 
These worthy men received the order, and 
soon appeared in the street, wearing their 
official robes, and led by the high sheriff, on 



178 COLONIAL TLMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

their way to the court-house to discharge 
their duties. As the mob did not make way, 
the chief justice asked for what purpose they 
were assembled. The leader of the mob, 
standing on the court-house steps, replied, in 
the style of a modern politician, " All that is 
dear to us and the welfare of unborn millions 
direct us to prevent the court from being 
opened." To this the chief justice answered, 
— according to the report written by a Roch- 
ester boy named Abraham Holmes, who was 
one of the mob, — "This is a constitutional 
court, the jurors have been drawn from the 
boxes as the law directs, why do you inter- 
rupt us .'' " 

The leader then justified himself by the 
reply : " But from the decisions of this 
court an appeal lies to a court whose judges 
hold office during the King's pleasure, over 
which we have no control ! " 

The mob prevented the session of the 
court and compelled the justices to sign cer- 
tain political obligations in harmony with its 
own views. It was not dispersed until it had 
made a general disturbance in the town, had 
resolved to boycott British goods, and to sup- 
press peddlers who sold Bohea tea. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. \y(^ 

While such events were transpiring there 
was nothing written upon the town records 
indicating any sympathy with the rebellion. 
Town meetings were held, as usual, and the 
Town's Mind expressed its will in regard to 
sheep, foxes, hogs, alewives, highways, the 
minister, the schoolmaster, the meeting- 
house, the rates, the paupers, as it had done 
in preceding years. 

Then came the year 1775, and the town 
records began to speak as follows : — 

** At a Town meeting regularly warnd & held in 
Wareham January ye 16 1775 made i'^ choice of 
Capt Noah Fearing moderator. 2'^ Voted not to 
Send A man to the Provincial Congress. 3'^' Voted 
to allow to each minute man I^ 4*^. per Week. 
4'-^ voted not to make any Province and County 
tax. 5'y Voted to adjourn to February ye 6th 
Day." 

The wages fixed for minute men, the vote 
about the province tax, the refusal to send a 
representative to the Provincial Congress, 
show that rebellion was in the air, but its 
spirit had not yet seized upon the town. The 
little that exhibited itself had probably been 
worked up by the moderator, who was one of 
the principal men engaged in the Barnstable 



l80 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

riot.^ The next town meeting was held on 
the 20th of March ; when it was voted " to 
Purchase six Guns for use of ye Town," and 
the minute men, having no occupation by 
which they could earn the one shilling and 
four pence (22 cents) per week which the 

^ " At an adjourned Town meeting held in Wareham 
the 6th Day of February 1775 

ily Voted not to allow to the Revd Mr Thacher anything 
for the year Past more than his Stated Salery 

2dly Voted to vendue the Ministree Lands & meadows 
in the West End of ye Town the Improvement of it for 
one year & the Profits to go towards Defraying the Revd 
Mr Thachers Sallery 

3dly Voted Deacon Willm Blackmer & Samll Savery & 
Joshua Briggs Be a Committy to Vendue the same 

4ly Voted to Pay the Province tax to Andw Mackie & 
he to keep it till the town Shall order it otherways 

5ly Voted To Dissolve the meeting." 

"By Virtue of the annual Warrant Set up by the Select 
Men The Town met together on Monday the twentieth 
Day of March 1 77 5 & acted as follows — 

ily made Choice of Capt Noah Fearing moderator 

2dly Chose Andrew Mackie Town Clerk " 

3dly Voted to chuse three Select Men one in each End 
& one in the Middle part of the Town 

4ly Chose Ebenz Briggs SmU Savery Capt Noah Fear- 
ing Selectmen & Assesors 

5ly Voted to hire constables 

6ly Chose Barnabas Bump Jabez Besse Jur Wardions 

7ly Capt Fearing Thomas Whitten Joseph Bump 2d Sur- 
veyor of highways 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. l8l 

town had engaged to pay them — were or- 
dered " to assist in takeing Care of the Ale- 
wives." On the 3d of April it was "voted 
not to allow the minute men Wages any- 
longer." 

The news of the battle at Lexington 

81y Ebenz Swift Rowland Thacher fence Viewers 

gly Thomas Norris Prince Burgess Tything men 

loly Sam' Savery Surveyor of Lumber Sealor of weights 

and measures 

Illy Joseph Sturdifant Sam»l Briggs Enos Howard Hog 

Reaves 

I2ly Jabez Burgess Sealer of leather 

i3ly Zepheniah Bump Jonathan Gibbs Deer Men 

i4ly Deacon Blackmer Thomas Whetten John Fearing 

Nathan Briggs Barnabas Bate to take Care of the Ale- 
wives 

I5ly Voted for Capt Israel Fearing with his company to 

assist in takeing Care of the Alewives 

i61y Voted that there should be no Shell fish nor shells 

sold nor carryed out of town. 

I7ly Chose David Nye Jonathan Gibbs Jesse Swift 

Saml Swift to Inform relating to the Shell fish 

iSly Chose Jeremiah Bump Town treasurer to serve for 

one Dollar 

igly Voted Sheep to go at large without a Shepherd & 

Swine yoked & ringed. 

2oly Voted to lay out the road by Zepheniah Bump if it 

could be done without Purchasing any land 

2ily Voted to Purchase Six Guns for use of ye Town 
lastly Voted to adjourn this annual meeting to the twenty 

fourth Day of April three o'Clock afternoon " 



1 82 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

reached Wareham by a rider from Boston on 
the 20th of April. When the town met on 
the 24th, no allusion to the battle was made, 
and the meeting was adjourned for five 
months, with as little concern as to the mag- 
nitude of current events, as if they involved 
no issues greater than those which had in- 
terested town meetings in previous years. On 
receipt of the news from Lexington a com- 
pany of mihtia started for Boston, and an- 
other started for Marshfield, where many 

" At Town meeting regularly warnd held on the third 
Day of April 1775 — 

I'y chose Capt Noah Fearing moderator 

2dly chose Saml Savery Deacon Blackmer Joshua Gibbs 
Noah Fearing Barnabas Bates to be a Committee to Ven- 
due the Improvement of the ministree lands & meadows 
for one year 

^dly Voted not to allow the minute men Wages any 
longer 

4ly chose Lieut John Gibbs to Provide a minister for the 
town & a Place for him to bord at 

lastly Voted to adjourn this meeting to the twenty fourth 
of this Instant at two o'Clock." 

"Town Meeting April 24th, 1775. Voted 

I'y to Pay the Province tax to Henry Gardner Esqr of 

Stowe 

2dly to adjourn this meeting to iStl' September next." — 

Wareham Records, 1775. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 1 83 

loyalists were living under protection of the 
King's troops. The latter company was com- 
manded by Major Israel Fearing, whose wife, 
Lucy Bourne, was an ardent loyalist. The 
tradition is that as he passed out of his door 
to lead the men who were waiting for him, 
his wife, desiring to prevent his going, seized 
fast to the skirts of his military coat. But, 
like Captain Sir Bilberry Diddle in the song, 

" Said he to his lady, My lady, I'll go ; 
My company calls me, you must not say no," 

and he broke away from her, leaving a part of 
his uniform in her hands. 

During the summer of 1775 the town was 
principally interested in efforts to make a 
shrewd bargain with Josiah Cotton — " to 
see," as the records state it, " on what Terms 
he will Preach and on what Terms he would 
settle," and in preparing for the festivities 
which were to celebrate his ordination in the 
new meeting-house. An indifference to pub- 
lic affairs continued until the Declaration of 
Independence, when the town was called 
upon to express its preference for a new form 
of government ; and it declared in favor of 
that which had been enjoyed under the 
colonial charter, in these words : — 



184 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

" At a town meeting regularly warnd & held 
on October ye 14: 1776 To Consider of a request 
from the Hon"^ Generall Court. Resolved as 
follows : that we Judge it best that ye Plan of 
Government by ye late Charter viz by the house 
of Representatives And Council! be still contin- 
ued & strictly adhered to & that no alteration be 
made therein Respecting a form of Government 
at least during the present war." 

This expression of opinion was elicited by 
a decree of the Provincial Congress, which, 
since the first events of the Revolution, as- 
sumed to act as the government. It had al- 
ready ordered that legal writs and processes 
should no longer run in the name of the 
King, but in the name of " the government 
and people of the Massachusetts Bay in New 
England," and the towns had been requested 
to instruct their delegates on the subject of 
independence, and to empower them to adopt 
a new " frame of government." 

The revolutionary cause had now become 
the fashion and craze of the day.^ Open loy- 

1 "The American Revolution, like most others, was the 
work of an energetic minority who succeeded in commit- 
ting an undecided and fluctuating majority to courses for 
which they had little love, and leading them step by step 
to a position from which it was impossible to recede." — 
Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 1 85 

alists, who were mainly of the most respecta- 
ble and substantial class of citizens, had been 
driven out of the colonies, their property was 
to be confiscated, rebels were to be trans- 
formed into patriots, and the time had come 
when no man nor measures could reconcile 
the people of Massachusetts to British rule. 
In every town an organized system of intimi- 
dation, or bulldozing, was put in operation, 
the object of which was to coerce the agri- 
cultural population into permanent rebellion 
against Great Britain. It was first author- 
ized by a resolve of the Great and General 
Court in February, 1776, directing the towns 
of Massachusetts to choose, by the written 
votes of persons qualified to vote in town 
meetings, a certain number of freeholders 
whose principles were known to be friendly 
to the *' Rights and Liberties of America," 
to serve as a "Committee of Correspondence, 
Inspection, and Safety." William Rotch, in 
his memoirs of those times, says: "There 
were so many petty ofificers, as Committees 
of Safety, Inspection &c. in all parts, and too 
many of them chosen much upon the prin- 
ciple of Jeroboam's Priests, that we were 
sorely afflicted." Wareham elected this com- 



1 86 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

mittee every year during the war. It was 
charged to ascertain what inhabitants vio- 
lated the resolves, directions, or recommen- 
dations of the Continental Congress, or of 
the General Court, respecting the struggle 
with Great Britain. Such persons were to 
be arrested and confined in the county jail, 
"without the use of Fire or Candle Pen Ink 
& Paper or conversing with any Person 
whomsoever." The committee arrested those 
who said, "Damn the country!"^ and those 
who sold tea, or who, in order to evade the 
stigma of " tory," drank it secretly in their 
families. They removed those whose resi- 
dence in the town was thought to be incom- 
patible with public safety ; they filed infor- 
mation before the justices against persons 

1 " Information being given to this Committee that one 
Isaac Harper had behaved in a very unfriendly manner to 
his country, — Several Persons were sent for to be in- 
quired of. Mr Thomas Moor attends, and informd the 
Committee that he heard said Harper Damn the Country. 
Mr William Daws attends and says that he had been often 
at Harpers House and discoursed him, and that he had 
heard him say that we were more arbitrary than the regu- 
lars — that he had rather be with them than us. Voted 
that complaint be entered with the Court of Enquiry 
against Isaac Harper of this Town as a Person inimical to 
the American States." — Records of Boston Committee. 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 18/ 

whom they suspected ; they watched chan- 
nels through which information might be 
carried to the enemy, examined private let- 
ters, detained trading vessels and fishing 
boats, kept a list of persons capable of bear- 
ing arms, ordered them on parade, appointed 
officers to command them, fined those who 
failed to answer the muster roll, and from 
the ranks of this militia they drafted recruits 
for the Continental army. 

There are no means of knowing how vig- 
orously this committee worked in Wareham, 
as its records have not been found. But the 
records of a justice of the peace, commis- 
sioned by the new Commonwealth, indicate 
that the committee had to do with some of 
the most respectable residents of the town : — 

"On ye Third Day of June 1778 in ye Name 
of ye Government and People of ye Masschussis 
Bay in Nev/ England Personally appeared Before 
me Noah Fearing Esqr one of ye Justices of ye 
Peace for ye County of Plymo David Besse and 
Joshua Crocker Both of Wareham and acknol- 
idged themselves to stand Bound each in ye Sum 
of two hundred pounds For that Doer Andrew 
Mackie of Wareham Shall appear at ye next In- 
ferior Court of General Sessions of ye peace to 
be holden at Barnstable within and for sd County 



1 88 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

their to answer to an Inditement Found against 
him by ye Grand Jurey in April Courte Last. 
Noah Fearing Justice of ye Peace." 

Bondsmen also appeared before this justice 
and bound themselves to produce Rowland 
Thacher and Martha Fearing of Wareliara 
before the same court, whose next session 
was to be held "on ye Last Tuesday of this 
Instant June." As the records of this court 
were destroyed with the burning of the Barn- 
stable court-house in October, 1827, no ex- 
planation of the proceedings can be made. 

Nearly one hundred men of the town 
served in the war. Powder was bought for 
public use ; and when, 

" In their ragged regimentals 
Stood the old Continentals 

Yielding not, 
While the grenadiers were lunging 
And like hail fell the plunging 

Cannon shot," " 

the town sent clothing, rations, and recruits 
to support them. As the struggle was car- 
ried on at a distance, the townspeople suf- 
fered from none of its desolations, but they 
felt the great burden of the war in repeated 
calls for money, in the disturbance which it 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. 189 

produced in their ways and means of living, 
and in the yearly increase of the public taxes, 
which caused the prices of all articles to ad- 
vance rapidly. In order to prevent traders 
from practicing extortion in the sale of the 
necessities of life, — after the manner of 
modern " trusts," — the legislature passed an 
act under which " John Fearing Esquire 
Joshua Gibbs and David Nye were chosen to 
see that there Bee no Forestalling or Mono- 
polizing in ye Towne." Nevertheless ofBce- 
holding was not without profit. Two per 
cent, was paid in 1779 for "going to Boston 
to fetch the money due to the town," and 
frequent ofificial journeys were made at public 
expense.^ 

1 The following extract from a petition to the General 
Court in November, 1779, from "Several Towns in the 
County of Lincoln," may be considered as describing the 
condition of the rural population of Massachusetts at that 
time : " When we Look about us and behold the Dis- 
tress of the People almost Destitute of most of the Neces- 
saries of Life, no Exports or Imports by Sea as Usual in 
time past, whereby our wood and Lumber, the Little we 
got in our perplexd Circumstances Lays upon our hands, 
and no provision brought to us, and no money to purchase 
any with, we Stand amazd at the Prospect, and when we 
Look forward and behold the Monsterous Taxes that are 
Laid upon us, and no money to Pay it with, we are Aston- 
ishd & know not what to do." " We humbly trust we may 



190 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

In 1780 the town was taxed £,\o^ for the 
redemption of bills of credit and for paying 
interest in specie on notes issued by " the 
Province colony or now State of Massachu- 
setts Bay ;" and it was also taxed £,Zo<^6 for 
defraying the public charges and carrying 
into execution the resolves of Congress. In 
the same year the town paid to each of its 
six months' recruits for the army, " sixty- 
nine silver dollars and one hundred and 
thirty dollars as mileage mon"ey." In 1781 
it held a lottery " to raise two hundred and 
eighty hard dollars to raise soldiers with ; " 
at the same time it sent nearly ten thousand 
pounds of beef to the Continental army. On 
the nth of February, 1784, its war record 
was closed by ordering its British colors to 
be sold, and by voting " that the five years 
Pay granted to the Continental officers is 
Unjust and Ought Not to be Paid them." 
This opinion was universal with the rural 
population of Massachusetts, which had been 
impoverished by the war, and it found ex- 

Decently petition that Power which has Taxed us Unrep- 
resented, as we have a President from these Colonies of 
Partitioning the Parliament of Great Britan in a Similar 
Case." 



TOWN LIFE IN THE REVOLUTION. I9I 

pression in many resolves as bitter as those 
adopted by the neighboring town of Roch- 
ester : " That however the power of Con- 
gress may be we think the Grant by them 
made to sd officers was obtained by undue 
influence & if no Negative to sd Grant is 
yet to be admitted, notwithstanding all their 
good services we shall esteem them Public 
Nusances & Treat them in that Curracter." 

The army had become a power greater 
than the State, and it was not ready to dis- 
band, after peace had been declared, without 
some unusual recognition of its importance, 
Abigail Adams, writing from Braintree in 
June, 1783, said: "Congress has commuted 
with the army by engaging to them five 
years' pay in lieu of half-pay for life. With 
security for this they will disband contented ; 
but our wise legislators are about disputing 
the power of Congress to do either, without 
considering their hands in the mouth of the 
lion, and that, if the just and necessary food 
is not supplied, the outrageous animal may 
become so ferocious as to spread horror and 
devastation." So the farmers of Wareham 
and Rochester had reason for their opinions. 




XIII. 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 



EACE was welcomed by everybody. 
Although the town warrants ran no 
more in His Majesty's name, and the 
Revolution had effaced all marks of the royal 
authority, the customs and manners of the 
people had suffered no change. Farmers at- 
tended again to their own business — ship- 
ping away timber and firewood cut on the 
decrease of the moon, making salt by the 
evaporation of sea water, building vessels, 
increasing their flocks of sheep, gathering 
iron ore from the bottoms of ponds, making 
charcoal for forges recently set up, and nails 
from slit iron rods in their home smithies. 
To those who had been induced to neglect 
their farms for the sake of the war, peace 
brought many discouragements ; and when 
stories came of fertile lands to be had in 
the region known as the Ohio, the pressure 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 193 

of poverty, and perhaps of public opinion 
also, caused an emigration thither, and to the 
district of Maine, as well as to places less 
remote, of some who had been active in 
encouraging the war. From the following 
quaint soliloquy, written in Israel Fearing's 
account-book by a young woman descended 
from him, it may be inferred that many re- 
grets were felt on leaving the ancestral 
homes : — 

" The painful hour is fast approaching when I 
must say adieu to my native place. My home, 
days of my cheribhed youth farewell. The pain 
of sepperation is continually hovering on my 
mind when I must extend a parting hand to many 
dear relatives. The fond recollection of the many 
happy hours I have spent in their edefying com- 
pany fill me with raptures, and now often drenches 
my eys in tears." 

From early times there had been a path 
through bars and gates along the river's side 
from the centre village to the Narrows. It 
was opened as a highway after the Revolu- 
tion, and until recent years it was a thor- 
oughfare of sand, into which the ship-car- 
penter cast his chips, the harness-maker his 
scraps, the tinman his clippings, and the 



194 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

butcher his bones. Now it is a smooth, broad 
road, hardened by oyster shells, on which 
summer visitors disport themselves in their 
equipages, and the owner of fast horses tries 
their speed. It ended at the ferry which was 
kept by a " sutable person " appointed by 
the town, who was allowed to charge two 
pence for a passage in his boat. From the 
ferry stones on the Agawame side of the 
river was an old road, called by the first plant- 
ers the Woonkinco Way. Now, shaded by 
oaks, it is a pleasant way to the dwelling 
houses of urban families along the shore, 
whose yachts may be seen on summer days 
trolling the bay or bound on pleasure cruises. 
Near the ferry at the Narrows several 
houses were built, on the close of the war, and 
one now standing has some celebrity as having 
been the home of John Kendrick, discoverer 
of the Columbia River, who sailed from Bos- 
ton in 1787 as master of the ship Columbia. 
She returned in 1790, having, it is said, made 
the first American voyage around the world. 
Four Lombardy poplar-trees stood in front of 
the house, and the flood tides nearly reached 
its door-yard gate. Now its one solitary pop- 
lar looks down upon a busy street, which is 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 195 

bordered on the harbor side by warehouses 
and wharves where schooners are discharging 
coal for iron -works, and corn and lumber for 
traders in Plymouth and Barnstable counties 
who come to Wareham for supplies. 

After the war was over, the farmers con- 
tinued to make their reckonings in colonial 
shillings and pence. They called the quarter 
of the Spanish milled dollar a " one-and-six," 
the eighth was a ninepence, the sixteenth a 
fourpence or "fopensapny ; " and the coins 
into which the dollar was divided were kept 
in circulation until the marks of their origin 
in the mint of Spain were almost obliterated. 
Their method of trading with each other is 
shown by the settlement of an account with a 
shoemaker, which began in 1780 and ended in 
1803. It was credited every year with shoe- 
making for the family, and was debited from 
time to time with salt-hay, cheese, mutton, 
molasses, corn, tallow, sheep's wool, hire of 
horse, hauling firewood, sole-leather, a goose, 
wheat, candles, sugar, rye, pork, and three 
shillings. 

Money was not abundant ; farm products 
were the staple values, and were exchangeable 
at the village stores for merchandise. Sugar, 



196 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

tea, molasses, rum, and other comforts thus 
obtained, were kept on hand by thrifty farm- 
ers to be used in paying for hired labor. 

Undisturbed by the political questions of 
the times, the Wareham farmers kept the 
noiseless tenor of their way as their fathers 
had done under the rule of the King. In 
early spring alewives came into the rivers, 
and for a while formed the staple of trade 
and conversation. Their annual return "with 
such longing desire after the fresh water 
ponds" — as an old chronicler writes — was 
the most important event of the year. At 
the birth of the town the prosperity of ale- 
wives was a public concern ; and from that 
day to this, these historic fishes have aroused 
the state legislature, have vexed town meet- 
ings, and have formed a platform on which 
the rising politician has aired his wisdom. 

The Woonkinco River, fed by cold springs 
in Plymouth Woods, and having no ponds at 
its source, was not inviting to migratory fish ; 
for these reasons, the yield from it was al- 
ways insignificant, while the Weweantet and 
Agawame rivers, flowing out of large ponds, 
furnished attractive spawning grounds, and 
in these rivers the town's fishery yielded 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 197 

large results. Two kinds of alewives came 
to the rivers : the larger, coming first, sought 
the Weweantet, swarming in the deep ravine 
called the Poles in such numbers that it was 
impossible for more than a small portion of 
them to pass up stream during an ebbing 
tide ; the smaller, called black - backs, tar- 
ried in the bay until the temperature of the 
rivers became warmer, and then they invari- 
ably entered the Agawame. 

In colonial times the March town meeting ^ 

1 " The Town meet att the Day and time Sot att the ad- 
jurdment. The Modarater Put to vote whether the town 
was for Haveing 410 Barels of hering Cetcht out of ye 
several Streems In Wareham ye Present year for markit 
Provide the men that Cetcht them would Pay to ye town 
four shillings Bountey on each Barel for ye youse of the 
town and ye vote Past in the Afifarmitive. 

oute of Weantet River 300 

cute of agewam River 80 

oute of wampinco River 8 

oute of Cohasit Crick socaled 16 

oute of ye Brook By micah Gibbs 6 

410 
the men that appeard in meeting to Cetch ye herings and 
Give ye 4 pr Barel Cap' fering for his suns Decon Joshua 
Gibbs for himself & Suns Rowland Swift for himself But- 
ler Wing for himself and ye other men Concernd with him 
In ye fishing affare."— Wareham Records, March 31, 1747. 



198 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

fixed the number of alewives to be caught 
and the price to be paid by the catchers. In 
later years a change of this custom has added 
an important day to the town's calendar ; the 
day when, at the tavern, is sold by auction 
to the highest bidder the exclusive right to 
catch alewives on three days of the week 
between sunrise and sunset. On these days 
the buyer of the right is obligated to sell 
four hundred alewives — generally called 
" herrin' " — for sixty-four cents to each 
householder applying for them, and to give to 
all widows in the town a barrel-full of the fish 
without price. The cruel tradition is that 
this " bar'l o'herrin " has sometimes appeared 
to be, as respects the support of a dependent 
family, a full compensation to the widow for 
the loss of him of whom she was bereft. 

After the townspeople had pickled and 
dried their alewives and strung them on twigs, 
and hung them, away from the reach of do- 
mestic animals, in wood-sheds and barn-lofts, 
the season of sheep - shearing came, accom- 
panied with northeast winds and fogs from 
the sea ; a weather called from generation 
to generation "the sheep-storm." In town- 
meeting warrants there was always a stroke 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 1 99 

about sheep, and orders were made that they 
shall "not run at large on the Commons 
from shear time til ye Twentyeth of Decem- 
ber & if any ram shall Be taken up the 
Owner Shall forfeit & Pay One dollar." To 
protect them while pasturing in the woods, 
the town kept four hounds and paid a bounty 
for every fox's head brought in. 

In the autumn, salt grass, shell fish, and 
cider were cared for. In the winter, firewood 
was cut, nails were wrought in the smithies, 
charcoal was made, the shoemaker and the 
schoolmaster went their round of visits. All 
the year through, intentions of marriage were 
screamed in the meetinghouse. The town 
clerk certified each intention in his best style 
of handwriting, and the minister, or the jus- 
tice of the peace, took the certificate and 
three shillings, performed a marriage cere- 
mony, and drank a bumper to the new man 
and wife. 

The records of a justice of the peace begin- 
ning in 1804 show that the jurisdiction of this 
court was more extensive than it had been 
before the war. On his farm he vegetated 
without a law library, but by his common 
sense maintaining a tribunal before which 



200 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA Y. 

eminent lawyers pleaded causes. Once a 
year the town officers came before him to 
take the oath of office, as their predecessors 
came before his father to swear allegiance to 
King George the Second. But now it was 
required of the town constables to subscribe 
an oath before the justice, in which they did 
"renounce and adjure all allegiance subjec- 
tion and obedience to the King, Queen, or 
Government of Great Britain, and every 
other foreign power whatsoever." 

The sessions of this court were held in 
the dwelling-house on Fearing Hill. Hither 
came plaintiffs and defendants from the vil- 
lage and from neighboring towns to lay their 
cases before the justice, who was known in 
all the region as the Squire, and the witnesses 
loitered by the lilac -trees at the frontdoor 
while they waited a summons to come into his 
presence. If the defendant did not appear 
at the time appointed for trial, his name was 
solemnly called three times, and, no response 
being heard, judgment was immediately en- 
tered against him. The wardens brought in 
all the boys and girls whom they had seen 
laughing in the meeting-house, and the 
Squire fined the girls five shillings and the 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 201 

boys ten, for they were able to laugh louder 
than the girls. Persons against whom com- 
plaint had been made for traveling on Sun- 
day, for raking hay on the Lord's Day, for 
cursing a townsman, or swearing in the pres- 
ence of a neighbor, were brought here to 
pay the fines assessed by law for the benefit 
of the town's poor. He who had been over- 
taken with strong liquor confessed his error 
to the Squire and paid to him the penalty 
in colonial shillings. Here the constables 
brought the culprit who had pulled an or- 
chard, or had stolen a sheep, or had willfully 
knocked down a neighbor, spat in his face, 
pinched his nose, rubbed his ears, or other- 
wise maliciously dishonored him. The Squire 
tried the man accused of obstructing the 
passage of alewives up the town's rivers, as 
well as the man who had failed to appear 
in the ranks of the train-band, according to 
orders, on training day. He listened to the 
suit of the schoolteacher for her wages of 
one dollar a week, and to the claim for dam- 
ages to her dignity because the committee- 
man had locked her out of the schoolhouse. 
He took the affirmation of the mother of a 
bastard child, certified the oath of the admin- 



202 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

istrator of a widow's estate, recorded in sol- 
emn form confessions of debt, in which the 
debtor pledged that the debt should be paid 
oi:-; of his goods, chattels, lands, and tene- 
ments, "and in want thereof of my body." 
He issued writs against insolvent debtors by 
whicb they were put into the county jail, 
condemned others who could not satisfy a 
creditor's claim to a year's labor in the cred- 
itor's service, and he " married together " 
those who came to him to be married. 

It was -^ custom of the town to put incom- 
petent per<sons under a guardian, and to ex- 
ercise parental authority over those who, 
according tc public opinion, stood in need 
of it. A cai,e of this sort is described in 
the records as " that business concerning 
Noah Bump's dc^ughter, that married a certain 
Frye," which tho town took in hand in 1794. 
This certain Frye was an uncertain vagrant 
who had obtained employment on the farms 
and whom an indigent daughter of Noah 
had married, instead 0^ marrying a coachman 
as she probably wolM have done had she 
lived at the present time. What the town 
did with the twain is not known. But the 
consequences of the bus; ^ess were tragical, 



rOlFJV LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 203 

and illustrative of the heredity of pauperism. 
Years afterwards, in a drunken brawl the wife 
was killed by the husband, and the support of 
their pauper descendants is to this day con- 
tested judicially between Wareham and the 
neighboring towns into which they drift. 

In 1 801 smallpox appeared and caused 
great alarm. It was ordered by the town " to 
set up'Inoculating," and a house was taken 
"for to Inoculate in," to which families re- 
sorted, and where they were fed on bread and 
molasses while passing through a course of 
smallpox, as was the custom of the times. 

Every spring the keeping of the town's 
poor was sold by auction with their children 
and chattels, if they had any, and the sales 
were recorded in the towai clerk's book. For 
example: "Vandued the Child of Lynda that 
was before she was married the Child she 
had on Nantucket. Bid in by Ezra Swift at 
59 Centes pr week to be clothed fed & nursed 
by sd Ezra — the Docter's bil by the Town — 
til neaxt anuel meeting if not taken away 
suner." It was a nameless child, needing a 
home, a nurse and a doctor, farmed out to 
labor by the week, if not taken away sooner 
by death ! Another hard-hearted sale by auc- 



204 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

tion was : — " the Suporting of the widder of 
the late Jonathan perrey and Child & also two 
more of the youngest Children and also one 
Cow & one heifer " — a curious herding of 
children and cattle.^ Later it was voted in 
town meeting " to put up the poor in lump 
or together, and if," says the record, " they 
will not go five dollars lower why then they 
are to go separately." This attempt to 
cheapen the cost of supporting them failed; 
and the widows were again set up at auction 
annually, and sold " to be kept one year their 
clothing to be kept in repair and to be re- 
turned as they now are." The sales were 
made in the bar-room of the inn, where the 
landlord, as he served the thirsty guests from 
his decanters, discussed with them the value 
of the services of the paupers for whose 
keeping they had come tc bid. The sales 
records ran as follows : — 

1814 — "Jurned from the meeting-hoube down 
to Benjamin Fearings house to vandue the pour 

-The town records show many transactions which would 
r ow be considered as scandalous : William Perce was paid 
ifty dollars " for keeping his mother," and eight dollars 
and eight cents " for supplying his father ; " and the town 
also gave him two hundred and sixty dollars, for which he 
'■ proaiised to support his mother during her natural life." 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 205 

— the boy Lynda Boyer brot from Nantucket bid 
of to John Bates at 95 Dollars to be kept til 21 
yeares the money to be paid in saven yeares 
in proportion yearly — the Wd and Daughter 
Bethany Barrowes bid to prince Burges at $84 & 
one half Dollars for one year to clothe victual 
& Docter & nurse her — Salome Bump bid of by 
James Leonard at 38 Dollares & 75 Centes for 
one year to cloth & nurse & pay the Docteres 
bil — the Wd Mary Bump bid of by Ebenezer 
Raymond at 40 Dollares for one year to vittle 
and cloth & nurse & Doctor her." 

1819 — "Voted to vandue some of the poore 
Children such as could not be put out. The 
Fry girl was bid of by Moses S. Fearing at $89 
to be paid by proposion acording to the number 
of yeares he keepes her. The perry boy and girl 
bid of by Joseph Gibbs at fifty nyne Dollares to 
be paid in proposion. One boy bid of by Joshua 
Gibbs at Seventy nyne Centes pr week." 

1822. "Voted not to build a poor or work- 
house. Ada Bumpas was then set up to be kept 
untill next March meeting and was bid off by 
Curtis Tobey for $1 pr week." 

A condition of the sales w^as that the buyers 
should pay the doctor's bills ; a condition 
often disregarded, and when the unpaid doc- 
tor sent his bills to the tov^rn meeting they 



206 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

were sharply criticised ; and when Peter 
Mackie, the town physician, rebelled against 
this treatment, it was proposed that he 
should doctor all the paupers for twenty-five 
dollars a year. " And he agreed to do it for 
that sum," triumphantly wrote the town clerk 
in the town records. 

Physic was held in veneration. It was a 
custom of all well-regulated families, in the 
spring, to take large purges of senna, or mix- 
tures of brimstone, rhubarb, and molasses. 
In a serious illness cupping and leeching 
were resorted to ; mercury was administered 
until the teeth became loose ; water was de- 
nied to the sufferer in a raging fever, and 
salt clam juice was offered to assuage thirst. 
One might have an aching tooth jerked out 
by the fall of a ten -pound weight tied to it, 
or the pain might be destroyed by pressing 
quicklime into the cavity. But fortunately 
the race was hardy, and many people lived to 
an old age in spite of the doctor and his nos- 
trums. Those who died in old age were said 
to have died "of a hectical decay." Other 
causes of death noted in the church records 
were : " of the numb palsie ; of a dropsical 
consumption ; of the quimsey ; of a carking 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 20/ 

humour about the throat ; of a putrid fever ; 
of a canker rash ; of a perizeneumony ; of a 
stoppage by eating cherries ; of a yellow ner- 
vous fever ; of a carbuncle ; of a cramp in 
her stomach ; of a mortification." 

When the war was ended there were no 
conveniences for traveling to other towns. 
The roads, overgrown by trees, were more 
suitable for horses than for wheeled vehicles. 
A coach began to run regularly from New 
Bedford to Boston in 1797, the trees on each 
side of the highway having been trimmed to 
make room for it to pass ; but as Wareham 
was not on its route, a post-rider rode once a 
week through the town, calling at the inn for 
letters and connecting with the coach. This 
was the only line of communication with 
Boston for many years, except by sea. 

The isolated position of the town did not 
hinder its prosperity. Farms were fertile, 
shipyards touched homesteads at the Nar- 
rows, where freighting and whaling vessels 
were built. The owners of these were the 
thrifty farmers, tradesmen, and mechanics of 
the town, who were able to furnish, for the 
building of a ship, timber from their lands, 
materials from their stores, and labor with 



208 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

their own hands. The abundant fisheries in 
Buzzard's Bay and its influent streams also 
contributed to the town's prosperity. Colo- 
nial laws restricted the use of seines and 
nets in these fisheries ; and although similar 
laws are now in force, contraband fishermen 
are sometimes discovered in the bay, at early 
dawn, filling their sloops with fish unlawfully 
taken. 

The Woonkinco River entered the bay by 
a deep channel, and the harbor was often astir 
with sloops, schooners, and ships arriving 
and departing. Small sailing vessels from the 
bay passed up the Weweantet River to the 
"brickkiln landing," near Blackmer's Pond, 
where bricks were made, and farmers landed 
crops gathered on the bay shores. Squire 
Fearing's farm included lands in Agawame, 
and as they were six or seven miles from his 
dwelling-house, the crops were brought to 
this landing, and carted thence to his barns. 
One autumn, as the story goes, he had corn 
to be harvested on the island off Fearing 
Neck, and his neighbor. Captain Uriah Sav- 
ery, had a sloop which the Squire hired to 
bring home the corn ; having assured the 
captain that he knew the channels and could 



TOWN LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 209 

pilot the way to the island. They started 
from the landing and easily ran down the 
river to Great Hill. After passing this prom- 
ontory the Squire lost the way. Looking 
across the bay, all the headlands and coves 
appeared alike to him, and he could recognize 
no landmark by which to direct a course. He 
gave the captain orders to steer in so many 
diverse directions that the old mariner was 
convinced that this justice of the peace, who 
dispensed the laws of the Commonwealth 
from Fearing Hill, was more of a farmer than 
a navigator. In his humiliation the Squire 
confessed that he did not know the marine 
way to the island, but he had often gone to it 
by land and swum his carts and oxen across 
the channel. The captain put the sloop be- 
fore the wind, and running her towards Tem- 
pest Knob had the good fortune to make 
Fearing Neck. As they passed along the 
shores not a landmark was recognized by the 
Squire. Suddenly he vindicated his claim to 
be a pilot by exclaiming : " Uriah ! Uriah ! I 
told ye I knew the way; there's old Mac- 
manaman and his striped oxen on the shore 
for sartin ! " 




XIV. 



THE BRITISH RAID. 




'HE second war with Great Britain, 
declared by Congress in June, 
^^' 1812, excited no interest in the 
town. Public sentiment throughout Plymouth 
County was not only opposed to it, but found 
vent in resolutions which, if they had been 
made in 1776, would have caused those who 
made them to be expatriated as tories. Public 
meetings proclaimed it "to be disrespectful 
in the inhabitants " to do anything for the 
prosecution of the war, and that they would 
" support each other against all attempts of 
whatsoever nature to injure them for any- 
thing they rightfully do or say." A spirit 
of independence was everywhere exhibited, 
which would not have been allowed expres- 
sion in the years when a " Committee of Cor- 
respondence, Inspection and Safety" tyran^ 
nized over all personal opinions. 



THE BRITISH RAID. 211 

A Wareham schooner bound home from 
Turk's Island in the Bahamas, and another 
outward bound to Brazil, had been captured 
by the enemy ; but as hostilities were con- 
fined mainly to the coast of the Southern 
States, the town considered itself secure in 
its isolated position. This illusion was dis- 
pelled on Monday morning the 13th of June, 
1 8 14, when the British brig-of-war Nimrod 
came up the bay and anchored near Bird 
Island. She belonged to a blockading squad- 
ron which for several months had worked off 
and on the coast, foraging at unprotected 
places, seizing small craft, and harassing the 
commerce of Newport, Nantucket, and New 
Bedford. A few days previous her boats had 
come up the bay and cut out three sloops 
belonging to Wareham and carried them off. 

From her anchorage the Nimrod sent away 
six boats containing 220 armed men ; they 
spread lateen-sails, and with a fair wind and 
a flood tide, filled away for Wareham. Their 
coming was discovered by a man on the 
beach at Crooked River, who rowed over to 
the Narrows and told the selectmen. An 
alarm was sounded through the town, house- 
wives buried their silver spoons and porrin- 



212 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

gers in gardens, and some of the inhabitants 
assembled at the inn to consider what they 
should do. As an armed resistance was im- 
possible, they sent a white flag to meet the 
boats at the landing. The British marched 
up the road unopposed, set fire to a cotton 
factory and to several vessels, and then de- 
parted as they came. 

News-gatherers were quickly abroad, and 
the Boston newspapers were furnished with 
various accounts of the raid.^ A brief account 

i"Fairhaven, June 14. Yesterday morning we were 
alarmed by the appearance of the British brig Nimrod 
with 7 barges with her manned from the 74 now lying at 
Quick's Hole. About 8 o'clock she bore away up the Bay 
and as we supposed was bound into Rochester. We there- 
fore with a party of men proceeded with a small canon to 
assist the citizens, but the brig had come to an anchor and 
manned 6 barges with about 150 men and proceeded to 
Wareham where they arrived at 12 o'clock and destroyed 
12 or 13 sail of vessels, among them a new ship and a brig. 
They set fire to the factory and left it soon, when the peo- 
ple collected and put it out." — New England Palladijim. 

June 16"', 1814. " A gentleman from Plymouth states 
that on Monday about 200 men in 6 barges from a 74 and the 
Nimrod brig came in to Wareham and set fire to seven ves- 
sels, three or four of which were consumed. The others 
and a factory which was likewise set on fire were extin- 
guished." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 

June 18*, 1814. " We learn by gentlemen from Ware- 
ham that the 13th inst. several British barges landed about 



THE BRITISH RAID. 213 

of it was sent to a New Bedford newspaper 
by two of the selectmen : — 

" Wareham, June 14. 

" To the editor of the New Bedford Mercury. 

" Sir — Yesterday morning we were informed 
of the approach of the enemy, and at about 11 
o'clock A. M. they landed at the village called the 
Narrows, with a flag. There were six barges con- 
taining two hundred and twenty men. They de- 
manded (before the proper authority could arrive) 
all the public property ; and declared, that in case 
they were molested, every house within their 
reach should be consumed. We were not pre- 
pared to make any opposition, and promised not 
to. To prevent a violation on our part, they de- 
tained a number of men and boys as prisoners 
for their security ; declaring that if any of their 
men were injured, they should be put to imme- 
diate death. Having stationed sentries back of 

200 men at that place about noon. They proceeded to set- 
ting fire to a large ship and an elegant brig on the stocks, 
which they said was intended for a privateer, and several 
other vessels. They threw a rocket into a cotton factory 
which they said they considered public property. They 
did not molest the fishing craft, and seeing the name of 
Washington on the stern of one of the vessels, one of them 
ordered it to be burnt. One officer exclaimed — 'Not a 
hair of the head of this vessel shall be scorched,' and she 
was spared." — Columbian Centitiel. 



214 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

the village, they proceeded to fire the vessels and 
cotton manufactory. Twelve vessels were fired, 
five of which were totally destroyed ; the remain- 
der were extinguished after the enemy departed. 
The cotton manufactory was also extinguished. 

"Damage estimated at 20,000 dollars. It is 
supposed that the enemy came from the Nimrod 
brig, and Superb 74. 

Benja. Bourne, > selectmen of 
Benja. Fearing, ) Wareham." 

A more detailed account was sent by some 
of the inhabitants to Commodore Perry. It 
was as folloviTs : — 

" Wareham, June 21, 1814. 
"To commodore Perry. Sir — The following is 
a correct statement when the British landed at 
this place with their barges the 13th of this inst. 
June. We the undersigned do testify and say, 
that on the 13th of this inst. June, about 11 
o'clock, A. M. we saw the British with six barges 
approaching this village with a white flag hoisted 
in one of them at which time our flag was not 
hoisted, but Thomas Young was carrying it down 
the street towards the wharf, where it was after- 
wards hoisted. We the undersigned do further 
testify and say, that on the landing of the com- 
manding officer from the barge where our flag 
was hoisted, he the commanding officer did agree 



THE BRITISH RAID. 21 5 

that if he was not fired on by the inhabitants 
that he would not destroy any private property 
belonging to the inhabitants ; but he would de- 
stroy public property which did not belong to the 
town, and requested one of us to point out the 
Falmouth property or vessels, which we agreed to 
do, and one of us went into the barge with the 
second in command, and then they took down 
their flag of truce and proceeded to set fire to 
the Falmouth vessels. They then landed a part 
of their men, and in violation of their agreement 
proceeded to set fire to private property, by set- 
ting fire to a vessel on the stocks and five others 
which were at anchor and a Plymouth vessel. 
They were reminded of their agreement, and that 
they had taken advantage of us by false promises, 
but they threatened to set fire to the village, and 
put the inhabitants to the sword if any resistance 
was made or any attempts made to put out the 
fires, for they did not care about any promises 
they had made, also they landed a party of men 
and set fire to a cotton manufactory. They then 
returned to their barges, took twelve of the in- 
habitants with them on board their barges, and 
said if they were fired upon by the inhabitants 
they would put them to death. Then the com- 
manding officer ordered the flag of truce to be 
hoisted, and the second in command swore it was 



2l6 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

a damned shame and disgrace to any nation to 
enter a village under a flag of truce and commit 
the greatest outrage and depredations possible, 
and then return under a flag of truce, but on or- 
ders being again given by the commanding officer 
the flag of truce was hoisted. Our men were 
landed about three miles below the village, and 
the barges proceeded on board the brigantine 
Nimrod, then lying in the bay, 

David Nye, jr. Noble Everett, 
Abner Basset, Wm. Barrows, 
Isaac Perkins, Perez Briggs, 
Josiah Everett, Wm. Fearing. 

" P. S. This is known only by the undersigned, 
no other person being present, that is, that the 
British fired three muskets under the flag of truce 
before the agreement. 

Abner Basset, 
David Nye, jr." 

The twelve hostages were set free near 
Nobska Bluff on Cromeset, where the rivers 
meet the bay. From this point the boats 
were watched, on their return to the Nimrod, 
until they disappeared around the point of 
Great Hill. Then the little village at the 
Narrows aroused itself for defense. There 
was a mustering of the militia, rifle pits to 



THE BRITISH RAID. 217 

command the channels were dug, and senti- 
nels were posted* to keep watch and ward 
against another surprise from the sea. 

Although this raid attracted attention from 
all parts of the country, and was commented 
upon as an unnatural retaliation for the neu- 
trality of Wareham, the town having fur- 
nished neither a man nor a gun for service 
against the British, during the war, up to 
this date, the town records are silent about 
it. The only allusion to it is to be found in 
the treasurer's account-book, in which, under 
the date of 181 5, it is written : "Paid Archip- 
pus Leonard for standing guard when the 
British landed, seventy one cents." And 
that sum was all that the British raid drew 
out of the town treasury. 




XV. 




THE TOWN'S BASS-VIOL. 

GLIMPSE of the congregation in 
the meeting-house, in the early part 
of this century, is revealed in an old 
sermon, which mentions " Mackie at the holy 
supper reading off the hymn in Scottish style, 
Fearing in the gallery leading the choir with 
a loud voice, Savery with white locks bend- 
ing over his staff, Nye with powdered wig 
like an English judge, the aged men and 
women sitting in front of the pulpit in open 
seats, mothers with babes in their arms seated 
in chairs in the porch." 

To this congregation the propriety of using 
a bass-viol in the services of worship was 
an ever-present question. When new ideas 
about church music reached Wareham, in 
1794, the question was considered by the 
church, and after the town meeting had been 
consulted, it was decided, " Notwithstanding 



THE TOWN'S BASS-VIOL. 219 

the opposition of some, to have the Bass viol 
used." This decision aroused that Puritan 
prejudice which classed the use of musical 
instruments in worship as an abomination ; 
and therefore the church called a meeting to 
reconsider the question, when it was voted 
" that it is expedient that a Bass vial should 
not be used." 

Nevertheless the instrument held its place 
in the choir until 1796, when, by an order of 
town meeting, it was put out of the meeting- 
house. It remained outside, making various 
attempts to get in, until 1802 ; then a request 
for its readmission was considered, and the 
church was induced to vote, in April, " that 
we are willing that the singers should make 
use of the Bass vial on trial till next sacra- 
ment lecture." On a second request the 
church refused to grant any further indul- 
gence. The singers then went to the Sep- 
tember town meeting, and obtained " Leave 
for the Bass Vial to be brought into ye meet- 
ing-house to be Played On every other Sab- 
bath to begin the next Sabbath & to Play if 
chosen every Sabbath in the Intermission 
between meetings and Not to Pitch the 
Tunes on the Sabbaths that it don't Play." 



220 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

The town's bass-viol, like the song of the 
sirens, lured many pilgrims to forget the 
country to which they were going; and they 
so far renounced their loyalty as to turn away 
from the meeting-house on those Sundays 
when the instrument was to be heard therein. 
The most obstinate of these pilgrims was 
Captain Joshua Gibbs. From the outset he 
would neither listen to it nor make a compro- 
mise with it. "The thing is an abomination," 
he said. " Can't we sing in meeting without 
sich a screeching and groaning } My father 
and grandfather worshiped God in Wareham 
without a bars vile. I won't abide it ! " 

The church asked the town to stop it ; and 
in October, 1803, the town meeting ordered 
" Ye use of the Bass Vial in Publick Worship 
to be stopped." Then the singers and their 
allies stayed at home on Sundays, leaving 
nothing for the town to do but to turn around 
again; which it did in February, 1804, when, 
as the records say, — 

"The Town met & i'^ Voted to have Singing 
in the time of Publick worship. 

" 2'y Voted that ye Singers Shall appoint their 
head Singer. 



THE TOWN'S BASS-VIOL. 221 

" 3^^ voted to make use of the Bass Viol the 
one half of the Time & to begin with ye Viol 
next Sabbath day." 

Years passed, and through them all the 
bass-viol held its place in the meeting-house, 
and its enemies kept themselves safely be- 
yond the sound of its strings.^ In 1826 a 
church meeting was called to consider the 
case of some members who for a long time 
had neglected to attend public worship. 
*' Three of those brethren," say the church 
records, "being present, stated that the rea- 
son of their withdrawing themselves from 
public worship with the church, was the 
use of instrumental music in singing." It 
was proposed to submit their case to an ec- 
clesiastical council,^ when Joshua Gibbs, who 
had become a deacon of the church, refused 
to submit his grievances to the decision of 

1 "Decern. 13. 1807. The church tarried and Voted 
that the singers be requested not to make use of the Bass 
viol in public worship in the meeting house unless they 
give Cap. Joshua Gibbs, or his family in case of his ab- 
sence, previous notice." — Warcham Church Records. 

2 The Council advised " the Church in behalf of their 
aggrieved brethren, respectfully to request the Society to 
discontinue the use of instrumental music, particularly on 
days of communion." 



222 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUiriiARD'S BA Y. 

any council, and abruptly left the meeting; 
and such was the power of his obstinacy that 
this disloyalty was allowed to pass without 
further notice. 

When the church was reorganized, in 
1828, and was taking possession of a new 
meeting-house, the bass-viol appeared at the 
threshold like a ghost from colonial times. A 
new generation had inherited the prejudice 
against it, and William Mackie, Nathaniel 
Crocker, and Abisha Barrows were sent to 
the singers with an offer to give fifty dol- 
lars a year for the support of a choir, if the 
choir would sing without musical instruments. 
Their errand was unsuccessful. Again the 
controversy was renewed in 1829, but the 
church had become weary of it. The spirit 
which for thirty-five years had kept up the 
revolt was broken ; and the venerable Deacon 
Gibbs went to his grave leaving the town's 
bass-viol triumphant in the meeting-house. 



""^^f 





XVI. 

FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 

HE manners and customs of colonial 
times lingered on into the present 
century, until enterprising men/ who 
had come into the town bringing capital, be- 
gan to erect cotton-mills and iron-works on 
the dams where, for more than a hundred 
years, the farmers had sawn their logs and 
ground their corn. These new enterprises 
created new centres of population, and quick- 
ened the social life of the community ; and 
when the manufacture of iron hoops for the 
oil-casks of whaling-ships, and of iron nails 
by machinery, was begun in 1821, the town 
was awakened to a new and noisy existence. 
A brisk commerce enlivened the bay between 
Wareham and New Bedford, conveying 
1 The Tobeys, Pratts, Murdocks, Lincolns, and Leonards. 



224 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BA V. 

Swedes iron for the rolling-mills, and return- 
ing hoops to the whalemen's town. Packets, 
• — one of which bore the ferocious name of 
" Galloping Tiger," — loaded with nails, sailed 
regularly to New York, and brought back 
ores, blooms, flour. West India goods, and 
cotton. Cotton shirtings made in the Ware- 
ham mills for slaves' use were shipped direct 
to buyers in Virginia. Schooners loaded with 
iron wares from the Wareham furnaces sailed 
to the Kennebec and Penobscot, the Connec- 
ticut and Hudson, to retail them in the river 
towns. Trade increased at the harbor, ship- 
building yards were enlarged, and the little 
landing-places formerly existing alongshore 
became substantial wharves of stone extend- 
ing into the edge of deep water. 

The antique meeting-house felt this en- 
terprising spirit. Its outside was painted, 
and its neglected surroundings were cleared 
up. Carters were forbidden to leave their 
ore-laden wagons near it, and farmers were 
forbidden to cord firewood about it. Inside 
the house on Sunday there was the sound of 
fiddles and a showy parade of singers in the 
galleries. The oaken benches bordering the 
great alley were taken away, and one of the 



FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 225 

three outside doors was permanently closed. 
In the spaces thus acquired pews were built, 
which were sold by auction at high prices, 
the town clerk having been cautioned " to 
give no Deeds till the money is paid." The 
new-comers demanded that the money re- 
ceived for new pews should be used to build 
a steeple and to buy a bell. To this the 
farmers objected, and as they were a major- 
ity in the town meeting, it was there voted 
"Not to build a steeple neither buy a bell." 

The meeting-house had never had a warm- 
ing. During winter its interior was as cold 
as a refrigerator ; sometimes so cold that no 
service of worship was attempted. Parson 
Thacher wrote in the church records : " Feb- 
ruary 21. 1773. This was a remarkable cold 
Sabbath. Some by their glasses found it to 
be many degrees colder than ever was known. 
Many were froze. I myself coming home 
from meeting had my face touched with frost, 
so that we had no meeting in the afternoon." 

When wintry winds whistled through the 
crannies of the meeting-house, and fiying 
snow drifted under its doors and darkened 
its rattling windows, the rigors of the Mo- 
saic law were preached to an audience shiv- 



226 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

ering upon the brink of the freezing-point. 
Women found some comfort by resting their 
feet upon iron boxes filled with embers 
brought from their homes. Men shrugged 
themselves into as small a space as possible ; 
while the preacher, encased in a great-coat 
and mittens, stood at his post of duty as if 
determined to answer the Psalmist's question, 
"Who can stand before His cold.-'" 

The selectmen proposed "to purchase a 
stove and pipes and furnish wood and attend- 
ance" for the meeting-house. But the ma- 
jority in town meeting, believing, it may be 
presumed, that the preaching ought to be hot 
enough to warm the house, voted "Not to 
purchase a stove and pipes. Not to furnish 
wood and attendance." As descendants of 
colonial farmers they could read their " title 
clear to mansions in the skies," without the 
aid of fires and bells. 

Although the meeting-house was cold, 
church discipline was active enough to warm 
the thoughts of erring members, who, when 
brought to a condition of penitence, were re- 
quired to make confessions in public, as was 
the custom in former times. A young man, 
who probably, as the song says. 



FIA'AL TRANSFORMATIONS. 22/ 

" Danced all night, till the broad daylight, 
And went home with the girls in the morning," 

became conscience - stricken ; and, being a 
member of the church, sought and obtained 
its forgiveness. The records of 1823 state 
that " Harvey Bumpus, having a short time 
since mingled with the world in the frivolous 
amusement of dancing, came forward and 
made a confession which was read and ac- 
cepted." One stood up and confessed that 
she had been "guilty of a breach of the 
seventh commandment ; " another sinner, 
well advanced in years, confessed that he 
had " indulged to excess in the use of ardent 
spirits." 

Intemperate drinking was not unusual 
in New England towns. Ministers, as well 
as parishioners, drank rum moderately, or 
otherwise. At the stores it was sold for two 
shillings and three pence the gallon, and a 
decanter of it was at hand in the living-room 
of every dwelling-house. At an ordination, 
a wedding, a funeral, a house - raising, a 
launching, a husking, it was freely offered. 
If two men went to the salt meadows to mow, 
or into the woods to fell trees, they carried a 
pint of rum as a matter of course. Although 



228 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

farm laborers worked from sunrise to sunset, 
if a job was to be done after the day's work 
was over, a sufficient compensation to the 
men was an invitation to " Come in and take 
a grog ! " During the haying season it was 
a custom of the farmer to go to the meadows 
at eleven o'clock in the forenoon and at four 
o'clock in the afternoon, carrying a tum- 
bler and a decanter of rum for the refresh- 
ment of his laborers. In 1830, through the 
influence of the church, a society to promote 
temperance in drinking was organized in 
Wareham ; and to "sign the pledge" was 
then believed to be, for the signer, a com- 
plete riddance from the sin of drunkenness. 
Annually, in April, the governor's fast-day 
was observed by going to the meeting-house 
to listen to a long sermon ; and in November 
Thanksgiving day was observed by a similar 
service, followed by the cheer of an ample din- 
ner at home, for which preparations had been 
going on for a long time. But Easter and 
Christmas were unknown. Reminiscences 
of Christmas festivals as described in London 
story-books may have caused a child, here 
and there, to hang up its stockings by the 
kitchen fireplace, which was spacious enough 



FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 229 

to allow the entrance of Santa Claus and all 
his reindeers. He never came to fill the 
stockings, and childish faith was turned into 
unbelief. In the opinion of fathers and moth- 
ers, any special observance of Christmas day 
was a deference to the Pope of Rome. 

Still, social life was far from being gloomy. 
There were frolicsome assemblies for husk- 
ing corn and paring apples ; there were after- 
noon quilting-bees, and evenings enlivened 
by romping games, such as blindman's-buff 
and spin-the-platter. The sports and pas- 
times of these evening parties not unfre- 
quently bordered on rudeness ; the youthful 
merrymakers running a gauntlet, dashing 
through files of their companions who, with 
uplifted hands and waving arms, cut off the 
progress of the willing victim, while all sang : 

" The needle's eye that doth supply 
The thread that runs so true, 
It hath caught many a fair young heart, 
And now it hath caught you." 

Others, joining hands and wildly swinging 
around in giddy rings, chanted " Green grow 
the rushes, O " ; all the measures of the 
chant being zestfully marked, and interspersed 
with kisses. It was a common custom to 



230 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

invite neighbors or kindred "to spend the 
day," the guests arriving at nine o'clock; 
women prepared for knitting and needle- 
work, the elder men prepared to talk about 
wool, cattle, and crops. At noon a bounti- 
ful dinner was served for them, the great 
oven having been fired the day before, and at 
five o'clock in the afternoon the supper-table 
was spread with all the varieties of cake, pas- 
try, and sweetmeat for which the hostess was 
noted. In winter evenings there were sleigh- 
ing parties that pulled up at the tavern to 
drink mulled wine ; there were voluntary sing- 
ing clubs ; there were neighborhood gather- 
ings of young people, who, seated in a semi- 
circle around the large glowing fireplace, 
passed the hours in telling fortunes, drink- 
ing cider, cracking nuts, and eating apples, 
whose peels, pared off without a break, were 
twirled around the parer's head, and, falling 
on the floor, were supposed to form the initial 
letter of somebody's husband that was to be. 
A joyful event was the arrival of a son from 
the city, whose tailor-made clothes and dandi- 
fied airs were the pride of his mother ; or of 
a son returned from a whaling voyage, his 
sea-chest stored with shells and curiosities 



FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 23 1 

from the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and 
perhaps bringing a piece of China crape or 
India muslin for his sister's wedding-dress. 
Weddings were important events in the so- 
cial life of the town. Special journeys were 
made to Boston or New York to buy the out- 
fit, and brides were often arrayed in gowns 
of such richness that those which have been 
preserved to the present day are held as 
heirlooms of great value. Although the 
church looked upon dancing with disfavor, 
there were balls at the tavern occasionally, 
where young beaus prided themselves on 
the dexterity with which they " cut the pig- 
eon wing," and whirled through the meas- 
ures of " money-musk " and Sir Roger de 
Coverley. At evening parties, too, the guests 
were accustomed to join hands with the 
hosts in a "dance around the chimney," 
passing from room to room, a merry go-round 
of old and young. Going to meeting on 
Sunday morning was also a social enjoyment. 
It was like going to a country-side gathering 
of friends and neighbors. The meeting- 
house door was the Sunday newspaper con- 
taining, as in former times, all kinds of an- 
nouncements interesting to the congrega- 



232 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

tion ; and the noon-time intermission fur- 
nished the great opportunity when women 
who had received the latest fashions from 
Boston could see each other in their new 
bonnets and "dandy-gray russets," and could 
humanize their minds by an unlimited range 
over the fields of gossip. 

So old-fashioned were the farmers that new 
appliances for saving work were not in favor. 
Farming tools were wrought on the anvil of 
the village blacksmith, and so were the plow- 
share and the iron straps binding it to the 
mold-board. The well-to-do farmer kept a 
horse and shay, but it was only for hire and 
to carry the women folks to meeting. To 
him time was not money, and if he must go 
to a neighboring town he preferred to walk 
the distance rather than devote the establish- 
ment to his own use for the journey, except 
on unusual occasions. Clothing material was 
made on the farms. On the kitchen hearth 
stood dye tubs in which fleeces were colored 
red and blue. The industrious wife and her 
daughters were skilled in carding the wool, 
spinning it into yarns, and weaving the yarns 
into cloths, which, after passing through the 
fulling-mill, were made into clothing for the 



FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 233 

family. They also made fine linen from flax 
grown in their own fields. The shoes of the 
family were also a home product. Hides sent 
to a tannery remained in the vats a year, the 
tanner taking one half of them for his work ; 
when the leather was sent to the house, a 
shoemaker was summoned, who made and re- 
paired for every member of the family shoes 
enough to last a year, taking in payment for 
his labor various products of the farm. 

When the farmer made his last will and 
testament he began it " In the name of God," 
declaring that he was now " of a disposing 
mind and memory," and expressing his reli- 
gious faith by the following language : — 

" In the first place I give and bequeath my 
immortal spirit to God who gave it and my body 
to the earth to be buried in a decent Christian 
burial with a comfortable hope that at the general 
resurrection it will be raised in a glorious state." 

To his wife he gives " the use and im- 
provement of one third part " of his real es- 
tate and household furniture, with perhaps 
" two cows, one riding beast, ten sheep," and 
a seat in the family pew in the meeting-house. 
To his unmarried daughter he gives " the 
privilege," or exclusive use, of a designated 



234 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

chamber in his dwelHng-house, with a feather 
bed and furniture, so long as she Hves un- 
married, with storage space in the cellar, 
laundry space in the lean-to, a seat in the 
family pew, " firewood for one fire cut at the 
door, sixteen bushels of Indian corn and four 
bushels of rye a year, all to be provided by 
her brothers equally between them." To his 
oldest son he gives the homestead, land and 
buildings, subject to the mother's and daugh- 
ter's privileges, and he divides the remainder 
of his estate between all his sons. On his 
gravestone, set up in the old churchyard 
where his ancestors were buried, some pious 
rhymes were carved, expressing the belief of 
mourning hearts : — 

" So sleep the saints and cease to groan, 

When sin and death have done their worst. 
Christ hath a glory like his own, 

Which waits to clothe their waking dust." 

In those days there was no mania for trav- 
eling, no longing for fashionable resorts at 
"the springs" or in the mountains, to de- 
stroy the charm of village life. Perhaps 
once a year a farmer with his wife journeyed 
to Boston in the family shay, a little hair- 
covered trunk containing their best clothing 



FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 235 

strapped to its axle, to make a brief visit to 
relatives. But families generally stayed at 
home, excepting the daughter who found a 
husband in another town, and those restless 
sons who longed to see Boston, — from which 
news came at regular intervals by a stage- 
coach and a six-horsed baggage wagon, — 
or who hankered after the sea and gladly 
trudged afoot to New Bedford to join a 
whaling ship and pursue their sea dreams 
beyond Cape Horn. Occasionally one of 
the home-staying daughters became so 
skilled in needlework that her services were 
sought for by neighbors, the usual compen- 
sation for a day's labor being her diet with 
sixteen cents in winter and twenty cents in 
summer. Children were taught to work as 
soon as they were taught anything, and 
some, contented with their labors, grew to 
be men and worsen before they had crossed 
the boundaries of the town ; while others, 
more ambitious, having inherited the ster- 
ling qualities and steady habits which this 
honest mode of life produced, sought serious 
occupation in distant cities, where they be- 
came the founders of prosperous families, 
distinguished in social and in commercial life. 



236 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 

The farmhouses were low, rectangular, 
built around a large square central chimney. 
Beneath them were spacious cellars for the 
storage of various products of the farm and 
other household supplies, with which the 
thrifty farmer was abundantly provided. 
Near or connected with the dwellings were 
barns, cart-sheds, corn-cribs, and wood-piles. 
A picket fence, or a rough stone wall, sepa- 
rated the highway from the front door, and 
a straight path divided the turf between. 

"Adown the path the poppies flamed. 
Stiff box made green the border, 
And sweet blue violets, half-ashamed. 
Grew low in wild disorder." 

At last — it was in 1847 — ^ railroad from 
Boston, creeping towards Buzzard's Bay on 
its route to Cape Cod, entered the town 
and completed the social revolution which 
for several years had been in progress. It 
wrought great changes. It had already 
changed the face of the country by starting 
fires in the woods and turning streams from 
their channels. It now changed the home 
life of the people, weakened their religious 
habits, lowered the value of their farms, ere- 



FINAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 237 

ated new wants, and brought in a population 
of alien blood and faitli. The influences of 
manufacturing and commercial affairs domi- 
nated the town meetings. A stress and 
hurry of life began ; and that peace of mind 
with time to look about, which was charac- 
teristic of a farming community in colonial 
times, disappeared never to return. 

The farmers, who had been contented 
with the world bounded by their town's hori- 
zon, and with labors which produced such 
wealth as they required, found it difficult to 
conform their slow-going habits and inherited 
opinions to the new conditions surrounding 
them ; and, being no longer lords of the 
manor, they lost the independence which 
they had always enjoyed. 

Now the farmer who is tilling the ex- 
hausted soil pieces out his scanty income by 
trifles derived from a mechanical trade. His 
sons work in the iron mills, the nail factories, 
on the cranberry bogs, on the oyster beds, 
or they go to sea. Some, seeking a better 
destiny, wander away to the great city and 
to the far West, where a successful career 
leads them to forget the old homestead, or 
misfortune compels them to return at last 
and seek the shelter of its roof. 



238 COLONIAL TIMES ON BUZZARD'S BAY.\ 

Others, who are nearing old age and who 
delight to recall the incidents of their early- 
days in Wareham, are sometimes drawn back 
to gather up the ancient household relics — 

" The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door," 

the three-cornered arm-chairs, the brass 
warming-pan that drove the cold out of fea^ 
ther beds in winter, the spinning-wheel, the 
grandmother's sampler wrought in strange 
devices, — and to re-light their fire on their 
paternal hearthstone. 



APPENDIX. 



The following names are of persons upon whom a tax 
was imposed by the Selectmen of Wareham, in 1 783 and 
1784, to raise the money necessary to pay the cost of a 
two story dwelhng-house, as described on page 1 54, which 
had been built for Mr. Noble Everitt, the town's minister. 
These names have been copied from the lists which were 
committed to the tax collector, and they probably repre- 
sent nearly all the families living in Wareham at that 
time:^ 



Abigail Atwood. 
Barnabas Atwood. 
Joseph Atwood. 
William Atwood. 

Rose Barlow. 
Isaac Barrows. 
Nathan Bassett. 
Alexander Bates. 
Capt. Barnabas Bates, 
Barnabas Bates, 3d. 
John Bates. 
Capt. Joseph Bates. 
Samuel Bates. 
Thomas Bates. 
Thomas Bates, 2d. 
David Besse, Jr. 
Jabez Besse. 
Jabez Besse, 2d. 
John Besse. 
Joshua Besse. 
Silas Besse. 
Thomas Besse. 



Benjamin Benson. 
Caleb Benson. 
Consider Benson. 
Ichabod Benson. 
Jabez Benson. 
John Benson. 
Dea. William Blackmer. 
Isaac Boles, Jr. 
John Boles. 
William Boles. 
Joseph Bosworth. 
Benjamin Bourn. 
Ebenezer Bourn. 
Noah Bourn. 
Stephen Bourn. 
Benjamin Briggs, S. c 

(ship carpenter). 
Benjamin Briggs. 
Ebenezer Briggs. 
Hallet Briggs. 
Jesse Briggs. 
Joseph Briggs. 
Joshua Briggs. 



240 



APPENDIX. 



Nathan Briggs. 
Perez Briggs. 
Samuel Briggs. 
Seth Briggs. 
Barnabas Bumpus. 
Edward Bumpus. 
Jeremiah Bumpus. 
Lieut. Jeremiah Bumpus. 
John Bumpus. 
Joseph Bumpus, 2d. 
Widow Mary Bumpus. 
Noah Bumpus. 
Samuel Bumpus. 
Sylvester Bumpus. 
Elisha Burgess. 
James Burgess. 
Lieut. Prince Burgess. 

Jonathan Church. 
Nathaniel Cleark. 
Willard Cleark. 
William Conant. 
Joshua Crocker. 

William Estes. 

Benjamin Fearing. 
David Fearing. 
Israel Fearing. 
Israel Fearing, 2d. 
John Fearing, Esquire, 
Noah Fearing, Esquire. 
Silas Fearing. 

Benjamin Gibbs. 
Jonathan Gibbs. 
Capt. John Gibbs, Jr. 
Joseph Gibbs. 
Capt. Joseph Gibbs. 
Joshua Gibbs. 
Capt. Joshua Gibbs. 
John Gollt. 

Aaron Hammond. 
Edward Haiiimoiid. 



Widow Anna Haskell. 
David Haskell. 
Timothy Haskell. 
Arthur Hathaway. 
David Hathaway. 
Henry Hathaway. 
Nathan Hathaway. 
Salathiel Hathaway. 
Simon Hathaway. 
Henry Hedley. 
Seth Hiller. 
Calvin Howard. 
Enos Howard. 

Capt. John Kendrick. 

John LeBaron. 
JSmes LeBaron heirs. 
Thomas Lothrop, Plymo. 

Doct. Andrew Mackie. 
Caleb Mendol. 
Nubery Morse. 
Zebulon Morse. 
Benjamin Morey. 
Bartlett Murdock. 
David Muxham. 
Ezra Muxham. 
Nathan Muxham. 
Rubin Muxham. 

Oliver Norris, 
Samuel Norris. 
Capt. David Nye. 
Jabez Nye. 

Ebenezer Parker. 
David Perry. 
David Perry, Junr. 

Ichabod Sampson, Junr. 
David Sanders. 
Henry Sanders. 
Joseph Sanders. 
Isaac Savery. 



APPENDIX. 



241 



Phinehas Savery. 
Samuel Savery. 
Lt. Samuel Savery. 
Thomas Savery. 
Richard Sears. 
Nathan Shaw, Junr. 
Benjamin Shurtlif. 
Francis Shurtlif. 
Edward Sparrow. 
Capt. Josiah Stevens. 
Seth Stevens. 
Andrew Sturtevant. 
Charles Sturtevant. 
Ephraim Sturtevant. 
Hermon Sturtevant. 
Joseph Sturtevant. 
Rowland Sturtevant. 
Asa Swift. 
Benjamin Swift. 
Elisha Swift. 
Enoch Swift. 
Enoch Swift, Junr. 
Jesse Swift. 



Jesse Swift, 2d. 
Josiah Swift. 
Lemuel Swift. 
Samuel Swift. 
Samuel Swift, Junr. 

Lot Thacher. 
Rowland Thacher. 
Samuel Trip. 

William Washburn. 
Edward White. 
Nathaniel White. 
Richard Whitmore. 
Butler Wing. 
Jedediah Wing. 
John Wing. 
John Winslow. 
Tisdel Winslow. 
Seth Witherell. 

Henry Young. 



Of these persons some were taxed as owners of vessels, 
— as Capt. John Kendrick, Capt. Joseph Bates, Capt. 
Joseph Gibbs, Nathan Bassett, Asa Swift, Jesse Swift, 2d, 
and many others. Captain Kendrick, the discoverer of 
Columbia River, is mentioned on page 194. Nathan 
Bassett was the village blacksmith, who probably became 
an owner in vessels by forging iron work for them. The 
town records mention his employment to forge bayonets 
for the town's six muskets, when news of the Battle of 
Bunker Hill reached Wareham. Asa Swift was a ship- 
builder, and was building ships at the Narrows village as 
late as the year 181 1. Nearly all the Swifts and Besses 
on the tax collector's list were ship carpenters, ship mas- 
ters, or connected in some way with ships. 

Some persons were taxed as owners of factories, — 



242 APPENDIX. 

Perez Briggs, Joseph Bumpus, 2d, Nathan Bassett, Ben- 
jamin Fearing, Josiah Crocker, Enos Howard, Dr. Andrew 
Mackie, Enoch Swift, Lemuel Swift, Richard Whitmore, 
Henry Young, and others. It is difficult to understand 
what was meant by "factories." There were small full- 
ing mills, grist mills, and saw mills on the banks of the 
three rivers that empty into Buzzard's Bay within the 
town limits ; but there was nothing that could be classed 
as a factory, in the modern meaning of the word, except 
several structures on the bay shore in which salt was made 
by the evaporation of sea water, and an iron forge at 
Tihonet, erected soon after the Revolutionary War, by 
Samuel Leonard of Taunton. 

In later years the water power of the three rivers began 
to attract the notice of manufacturers in other parts of the 
state. In 181 2, when cotton spinning by machinery was 
in its infancy, Jonathan Read of Taunton came to Ware- 
ham and built a cotton factory on the Woonkinco River. 
This factory was set on fire by the British raiders of 1814. 

In 181 5, Curtis Tobey came from Sandwich and built a 
factory for cotton yarns, wickings, and shirtings, on the 
Weweantet River, near Fearing Hill, "with 144 good 
cast-steel spindles." In 1826, this mill, which was neatly 
built of stone, was leased to Bartlett Murdock, who came 
from Carver, and Joshua B. Tobey, at ^350 a year. In 
1S23, a mill for cotton cloths was built by Benjamin Lin- 
coln, who came from Norton, and Curtis Tobey, on the 
Weweantet River, near Bump's bridge. It started with 
420 spindles, and employed two men, one boy, and seven 
girls. 

There were iron works in the town before the Tihonet 
Forge was built. Surveys of land made in 1739 mention 
" Brigg's Iron Works on the Weweantet River ; " these 



APPENDIX. 243 

stood on the present site of the Tremont Iron Works. 
In 1 82 1, Isaac and Jared Pratt, who came from Middle- 
boro, established the manufacture of nails by machinery 
on the Woonkinco River, at the dam, where the first cot- 
ton mill was built. In 1826, a rolling mill and a nail 
factory were erected at "The Poles "on the Weweantet 
River by George Rowland, who came from New Bedford. 
In 1836, nail factories were built on the Agawame River 
by Samuel T. Tisdale, who came from Taunton, on the 
site where, in 1824, Thomas Savery built a cupola iron 
furnace. 

In addition to these cotton and iron factories, a paper 
mill was started in 1824 by Pardon Tabor on the Wewe- 
antet, near County Bridge; and in 1829 a stave mill for 
nail kegs was started by Lewis Kinney farther up the 



INDEX. 



Abigail Muxom accused and tried, 

143, 144. '55. 156. 
Abomination of the bass-viol, 220. 
A ferocious custom, 132. 
Agawame Booke, facsimile extract, 

45- 
Agawame Ferry, 194. 
Agawame Proprietors' annual 

meetings, 51, 52. 
Agawame River, 52, 61, 197. 
Agawame meadows and uplands, 

44, 46. 
Alewive (or herring) fisheries, 32, 

52, 8g, iSi, ig6, 197, 198. 
Alice Reed's burial, 96, 97. 
Arrest of Tories, 187, 188. 

Baggage wagons from Boston, 235. 

Bargains for labor, 60, 61. 

Barnstable rioters, 177, 178. 

Bar-room of the village inn, 124, 
204. 

Benjamin Fearing's Inn, 123, 125, 
126, 166, 169, 204. 

Bills of credit depreciation, 66, 140. 

Blackmers Pond, 131, 208. 

Boston " Committee of Corre- 
spondence," 169, 171, 174. 

Boston Port Bill, 101, 175. 

Bostontown (in 1738) and journey 
thither, 78, 79, 80. 

Bounties paid for killing wild 
beasts, 30, 31, 199; received for 
herring catch, 197. 

Bountiful larders, 58. 



Bumble-bee in the meeting-house, 

134- 
Burning warrants for jurors, 176. 
Business "concerning Noah 

Bumps daughter," 202. 
Butler Wing's promissory note, 

94. 

Carding and spinning, 56, 232. 

Castle William, impressment for 
its garrison, 104. 

Cattle marks, 85. 

Cattle pound (most ancient Eng- 
lish institution), 48. 

Charity for the poor, 40, 41. 

Cliurch discipline, 142, 159, 164, 
226, 227. 

Clerk of the market, 87. 

Cold weather, 225. 

Colonial shillings and pence, 68, 
IDS, 195. 

Committee of " Inspection and 
Safety," 185-187, 210. 

Communion wine, 128. 

Constable, his badge and duties, 92, 
93 ; his oath, 200. 

Cornfields planted, 32. 

Cromeset Neck, 112, 216. 

Crooked River, 61, 211. 

Currency, old and new tenor de- 
scribed, 66-68. 

" Damn the Country ! " 186. 
Dance " around the chimney," 231. 
Dancing at the tavern, 231. 



246 



INDEX. 



Dancing confessed in church meet- 
ing, 227. 

Deacon Swift's Inn, 145. 

Declaration of Independence, in- 
difference to, 183. 

Delinquent constables, 93, 94. 

Dissolution of Old Colony Club, 
'73- 

Drawing jurymen, 176. 

Dreadful doctrine of the sermon, 

«33- 
Dye-tubs on the kitchen hearth, 
232. 

Embargoes on tar, timber, lumber, 
etc., 24, 28, 29, 41, 49. 

Entertainment at ordinations, 139, 
151, 152. 

Excommunication from the church, 
159. 

Excuses for not sending repre- 
sentatives to Legislature, 172. 

Exiles from Acadia, 96. 

Expedition to Cape Briton, 67, 106, 
109. 

Extermination of farm pests, 30, 
31. 95- 

Farmer's inventory of personal 

property, 69, 70. 
Farmer's last will and testament, 

145. 233- 
Farmers reckoning accounts, 59, 

60 ; their work in winter, igg. 
Farmhouses described, 236. 
Fashions from Boston, 232. 
Fearing Hill, 19, 27, 200, 209. 
Fence-viewers, 88. 
Fettering the dogs, 32. 
First church organized, 35. 
Fish-inspector's oath, 89. 
Fresh-meadow Village, 39, 40, 112. 
Frigid meeting-house, 226. 

Gager of liquors, 90. 



Game keepers, 92. 
Going to meeting, 118, 120, 127, 231. 
Grievances of Joshua Gibbs, 220. 
Gristmill, subscriptions, 25, 26, 28. 
Grog in the haying season, 228. 

Haywards, or poundkeepers, 48, 

91. 
Highway inspectors, 88. 
Hog-reeves, 89. 
Horses grazing in burying grounds, 

1.36, 137. '4i- 
House of Capt. John Kendrick, 

194. 
House of Joseph Warren, 47. 
How a parsonage was built, 154. 
Hunting for a minister, 25, 153. 
Hunting for a schoolmaster, 38, 

165. 

Impressment laws of Mass., 105 ; 
executed in despotic manner, 
107 ; of men in Wareham for mili- 
tary service, 108, 109. 

Indenture of service, 72. 

Indian sachems defy the title to 
Sippican, 27. 

Influences of peace, 192. 

Inoculation for smallpox, 96, 203. 

Inspector of rivers, 88. 

Inspectors of lumber, 90. 

Intemperate drinking, 227. 

Intermission at the meeting-house, 
115, 121, 122. 

Jurisdiction of a Justice of the 
Peace, 72, 73, 75, 199, 200, 201. 

Launching a vessel, 63. 

Letter from Rev. Timothy Ruggles 

(1764)10 Rev. JohnHowland, 36. 
Letter (1814) to Commodore Perry, 

213. 
Lobbying the Plymouth selectmen, 

77, 80, 81. 



INDEX. 



247 



Loyalty to the King, 173, 174. 

Manomet Bay, 54. 

Mariner in the town stocks, 126. 

Meeting-house, "rat," 113; key, 

114; hour-glass, 133; pews, 33, 

113, 123, 129, 225 ; doors, 93, 113, 

115, 121, 128, 161,231; wardens, 

91, 134, 200; loft, 116. 
Meeting-house of the year i6qg 

described, 33 ; of the year 1770, 

122, 123 ; transformed, 224 ; no 

steeple, no bell, 225. 
Mending Jane George, 100. 
Migratory schools, 37, 39. 
Military clerk, 92. 
Minister Rock, 26. 
Ministers' horses, 137. 
Minister's salary not paid, 140, 141, 

146, 147. 
Ministry of Timothy Ruggles, 35. 
Ministry to be encouraged by whale 

oil, 138. 
Misfortunes of Reliance BuBipus, 

98. 
Modern trusts foreshadowed, 189. 

Natural rights and civil obligations, 

171. 
Neighbors " to spend the day," 230. 
Newspaper reports of British raid, 



Occupations of women, 37, 56, 

232, 235. 
Old landmarks, 53. 
Orthodox leather, 88. 

Parson Cotton's ostentatious ordi- 
nation, 151 ; his salary inade- 
quate, 152; abandons the min- 
istry, 153. 

Parson Everitt's bargain with the 
town, 154; his season of fasting, 
155 ; his secular occupations, 160. 



Parson Thacher's humble ordina- 
tion, 139 ; visit to town meeting, 
141; death of his wife, 144 ; courts 
and marries Hannah Fearing, 
14s ; his salary not paid, 147 ; his 
death, 14S. 

Physic held in veneration, 206. 

Poor of the town at auction, 99, 100, 
203, 205. 

Punishments, for breach of his 
Majesty's peace, 73 ; for cursing 
and swearing, 69, 70, 74, 125 ; for 
being overtaken by strong liquor, 
74 ; for theft, 74 ; for laughing 
in the meeting-house, 117; for 
traveling, raking hay, and pick- 
ing apples on Sunday, 119, 120; 
for delinquent constables, 93, 94 ; 
for inability to pay a fine of six 
shillings, 126. 

Quakers' taxes abated, 35. 
Qualifications for voting, 100, loi. 
Quarrels of the singers, 219, 220. 

Representatives in the legislature, 
42 ; not desired, 83, 171 ; qualifi- 
cation of electors, loi ; the town 
fined for not electing, 172. 

Rocliester rioters, 177, 178. 

Rochestertown incorporated, 28. 

Rural population in 1779, condi- 
tion of, 189. 

Selectmen, 94, 95, 102, 103, 214. 

Selling the British flag, 190. 

Schoolhouse, 167. 

Schoolhouse chair, 167. 

Schoolmaster's wages and diet, 37, 
38, 162, 167, 201. 

Schoolmistress, not as the law di- 
rects, 37. 

Schools in private houses, 162. 

Schools, popular opinion of, 163. 

Sheep-yarder, 91. 



248 



INDEX. 



Shipbuilding, 63, 207. 

Shoemaker's account, 195. 

Shoes bartered for load of hay, 62. 

Smock marriages, 76. 

Sneptuit, 32, 40. 

Social life at evening assemblies, 

229, 230, 231. 
Soliloquy of young woman going 

West, 193. 
Spanish silver money, 52, 67, 68, 

87, 141, 163, 195. 
Stage coach route to Boston, 207. 
Stinting the pastures, 49, 50. 
Sunday laws and observance, 73, 

118, 119. 
Sweeping the meeting-house, 91, 

115, 160. 

Tanner's account, 64, 65, 233. 

Tar and turpentine, 24, 29, 49, 58, 
62. 

Taxes for Revolutionary War, 190. 

Tipstaff, 92. 

Town clerk, 84, 85, 86. 

Town meeting, warrant for, 93 ; 
business of, 95, 96 ; character of, 
100 ; resemblance to English par- 
ish meeting, 102, 103 ; adjourned 
to an oak-tree, 170; adjourned to a 
tavern, 204 ; town-meeting nomi- 
nates the minister to the church, 
149; record of town meetings in 



the year 1775 at Wareham, 179, 
180-182; in the year 1776, 184. 

Town physician ; arrives at the inn, 
marries Charity Fearing, and 
teaches school, 166 ; cures the 
paupers, 206. 

Town system based on property in 
land, 50. 

Town treasurer, 86, 87, iSi. 

Town's doorkeeper, 91, 114, 115. 

Town's fox hounds, igg. 

Town's stocks, 96, 125. 

Trades and barters, 58, 62, 63. 

Tything-men, 8g, 90. 

Veneration for the King, 173, 174. 

Wages of the village seamstress, 

235- 
Wareham town incorporated, 82. 
Warning people out of town, 93. 
Weweantet River, 20, 27, 40, 196, 

197, 208. 
Whaling voyage, 63, 64. 
Whipping post, 126. 
Wickets Island, 52. 
Widow Lovell, 99, 100, 153. 
Woonkinco River, 27, 37, 38, 112, 

144, 160, 196, 197, 208. 
Work of the village blacksmith, 232. 
" Wretched Boys on the Lord's 

Day," 113, 135. 



INDEX. 



249 



PERSONAL NAMES. 



Arnold, Rev. Samuel, 34-36. 

Baker, James, 95. 
Barcham, Robert, 103. 
Barlow, Aaron, 29. 

Moses, 31. 
Barrows, Abisha, 222. 

Bethany, 205. 

Samuel, 74. 

William, 216. 
Bartlitt, Joseph, 45. 
Basset, Abner, 216. 
Bates (or Bate), Barnabas, 123, 134, 
146, 181, 182. 

Margaret, 59, 62. 

Samuel, 45, 48, 60. 

Thomas^ 62, 82. 
Beale, Nathaniel, 45. 
Benson (or Bensen), Benjamin, iig. 

Elisha, 143. 

Jabez, 109. 

John, 156. 

Joseph, 143, 156, 1 58. 
Basse, Benjamin, 59. 

David, 93, 187. 

Ebenezer, 60, 82. 

Hannah, 156. 

Jabez, 180. 

Joshua, 108. 

Nehemiah, 65. 

Robert, 108, no. 
Bishop, John, 98, 109, 164. 
Blackmer, Joseph, 58. 

Peter, 30, 86. 

William, 131, 146, 180, i8i, 
182. 
Bompasse, Edward, 98. 
Bourne, Stephen (of Sandwich), 73. 

Lucy, 183. 

Benjamin, 214. 
Briggs, Ebenezer, 123, 151, 180. 

John, 31, 39. 



Briggs, Joshua, 85, iSo. 

Nathan, 108, 177, i8i. 

Perez, 216. 

Samuel, 41, 181. 
Bump, Bamabus, 180. 

Edward, 108, log, no, 139, 

Eliza, 74. 

Isaac, 124. 

Jane, 97. 

John, 63, 108. 

John, Jr., 74. 

Jonathan, Jr., 109. 

Joseph, 180. 

Joshua, log. 

Jeremiah, 124, 153. 

Lydia, 164, 165. 

Mary, 205. 

Nathan, 95. 

Noah, 109, 202. 

Salome, 205. 

Zaccheus, no. 

Zaphanier, 68, ng, i8i. 
Bumpus, Ada, 205. 

Harvey, 227. 

Isaac, 40, 123. 

Jeremiah, Jr., 124. 

John the 3d, 98. 

Reliance, 98. 

Salathiel, 177. 
Bundy, Nathaniel, 76. 
Burges (or Bergs), Benjamin, 41. 

Deborah, 117. 

Ebenezer, 80. 

Elisha, gs. 

Ichabod, 37. 

Jabez, iSi. 

Prince, 153, 181. 

Samuel, 81, 86. 

Carver, Josiah, 74, 123. 
Chapman, Elder, 28. 
Chubbuck, Benjamin, gg, 109. 



250 



INDEX. 



Chubbuck, Cornitt, 45. 

Jonathan, 61, 62, no. 

Nathaniel, 59. 

Sarah, 99. 

Susanna, 74. 
Clapp, John, 39. 
Comes, Anthony, 31, 32. 
Cotton, Rev. John of Hampton, 
'33- 

Rev. Josiah, 149, 152, 183. 

Rev. Rouland, 136. 
Cowing, Caleb, 31. 
Crocker, Abigail, 139. 

Joshua, 187. 

Nathaniel, 222. 
Cunit, Josiah, 108. 
Cushman, Caleb, 143. 

Daws, William, o£ Boston, 186. 
Delano, Benjamin, 38. 
Dexter, Benjamin, 31. 

John, 37. 

Thomas, 42. 
Doty, Joseph, 24, 108, 109, no, 
162. 

Joseph, Jr., 109. 

Ellis (or Eles), Benjamin, 65. 

Deacon, 165. 

Hannah, 117. 

John, 81, 124. 
Estes, William, iig. 
Everitt, Josiah, 216. 

Rev. Noble, 153-155, 159, 
216. 

Fearing, Ann, 62. 

Benjamin, 70, 74, 86, 123, 
126, 146, 169, 204, 214. 

Charity, i66. 

David, 70. 

Hannah, 145. 

Israel ('Squire), 55, 62, 69, 
70, 77, 78, 83, 104, 129, 141, 
144, 145, 146, 161. 



Fearing, Israel, Jr., 146, iSo, 181, 

183, 197 (Feting). 
John ('Squire), 19,45, 70, 71, 

74, 119, 123, 126, 166, 181, 

189. 
Martha, 69, i83. 
Moses S., 205. 
Noah, 70, 170, 177, 179, iSo, 

182, 1S7. 
William, 216. 

Gardner, Henry, of Stowe, 182. 
George, Jane, 99, 100. 
Giford, Joseph, 61. 

Joseph, Jr., no. 
Gibbs, Ann (of Sandvich), 69. 

Benjamin, 69. 

John, 146, 148, 149, 177, 
182. 

Jonathan, iSi. 

Joseph, 205. 

Joshua, 81, 96, 182, 189, 197, 
205, 220, 221. 

Joshua, Jr., 109. 

Micah, 82, 197. 

Hamlen, Thomas, 80, 124. 
Hammond, Benjamin, 31. 

James, 31. 

John, 29. 

Jonathan, 31. 

Seth, 31. 
Hamonde, Roger, 103. 
Harper, Isaac, of Boston, 186. 
Haskell (Hascol), Mark, 62. 

Roger, 36. 
Hathaway (Hadawa), Arthur, 108. 

Simon, 176. 
Hillard, Jabez, 31. 
Hinkley (Hinctly), Thomas, 23. 
Holmes, Abraham, 178. 
Howard, Enos, 181. 
Howland, Rev. John, 36. 

Joseph, David, 31. 



INDEX. 



251 



Kendrick, Captain John, 194. 
King, Eleazer, 62, 164, 165. 

Ichabod, 64, 129. 

Mary, 129. 

Landers, Joseph, 109. 
Lane, Josiah, 45. 
Leonard, Archippus, 217. 

James, 205. 
Look, Samuel, 41. 
Lothrop, John, 22. . 

Joseph, 23. 
Luce, Ebenezer, 59. 

Mackie, Andrew, 160, 166, 180, 
187. 

Peter, 206, 218. 

WilHam, 222. 
Marshall (Mashell), Jane, 37. 
Maverick Samuel, (quoted), 137. 
Moor, Thomas, of Boston, 1S6. 
Morse (or Mosse), Joshua, 74. 

Elizabeth, 120. 

Job, 120. 
Morton, Nathaniel, 45. 

Josiah, 45. 
Muxom, Abigail, 142, 143, 144, 155, 

'56, 157. 1581 IS9- 
Edmund, 143, 156, 158, 159. 

Norris (or Nores), John, 60. 

Oliver, 51, 59, 109. 

Thomas, 181. 
Nye, David, 181, i8g, 218. 

David, Jr., 216. 

Oliver, Peter, 39. 

Parker, William, 74. 

Parmenter, Mary, 76. 

Paybody, William, 23. 

Peabody, Andrew P. (quoted), 174. 

Pennerine, John, g6, 97. 

Perce, William, 204. 

Perkins, Isaac, 216. 



Perry (or Peary), Ebenezer, 65, 106, 
109, 146. 

Ebenezer, Jr., 106. 

Jonathan, 204. 

Samuel, log. 
Pope, Seth, 45. 
Prince, Samuel, 29, 42. 

Rayment (or Raymond), Paul, log. 

Edward, 1 10. 

William, 165. 
Reed, Alice, 96, 97. 
Robbins, Rev. Chandler, 137. 
Rotch, William (quoted), 185. 
Ruggles, Rev. Timothy, 35, 36, 37. 

Timothy, Jr., 33, 42. 

Samson, Ichabod, 114, 132. 
Sanders, Henry, Jr., 61. 
Saunders, John, 75. 

Thomas, 132, 133. 
Savery, Deborah, 96. 

Ester, 59. 

Joseph, 70. 

Samuel, 123, 151, 165, 180, 
181. 

Uriah, 82, 113, 208. 
Shearman, Nathan, 76. 
Shiverick, Rev. Samuel, 25, 26. 
Smith, Benjamin, of Taunton, 8g. 
Stevens, Josiah, 100. 

Timothy, 31. 
Stuart, James, 31. 
Sturdifant, Joseph, i8i. 
Swift, Barnabas, 73. 

Ebenezer, 59, 6g, 73, 82 
181. 

Ebenezer, Jr., 73, 143. 

Ezra, 203. 

Jed'dah, 143. 

Jesse, iSi. 

Jirey, 82. 

Judah, no. 

Samuel, 181. 

Rowland, 60, 197. 



252 



INDEX. 



Taber, Phillip, Rev., 76. 
Thacher, Antony, 139. 

Rev. Rowland, 129, 130, 132, 
136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 147, 
148, 180, 225. 
Rowland, Jr., 148, 151, 181, 
188. 
Tobey, Ephram, 59. 

Curtis, 205. 
Tupper, Rouland, 65. 
Benjamin, 162. 
Turner, Thomas, 31. 

Washburn, Japath, 119. 
Warren (Woring), James, 80, 81, 
174. 
Joseph, 23. 



Warren, Joseph, Jr., 45. 
White, George, log. 

Samuel, 23. 
Whitten, Thomas, 85, 176, 180, iSi. 
Wickod, Rebecca, 71. 
Wing, Butler, 94, 197. 

Jedediah, 161. 

Jemima, 96. 

John, 31. 

Jonathan, 126. 
Winslow, Edward ('Squire), 38, 40, 
69, 71. 

Reuben (of Freetown), 73. 
Wood, Josiah, 63, 64. 

Theophilus, 60. 

Young, Thomas, 214. 



JUL 28 1900 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 069 409 5 



^^a 



